NHS braced for tobacco law change

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Health officials in Tayside are confident they will be able to cope with the number of children trying to quit smoking when the law changes.

The legal age for buying tobacco is increasing from 16 to 18 from Monday.

NHS Tayside is one of the few health authorities in Scotland with special cessation services for teenagers.

Public health consultant Andrew Radley told BBC Scotland he expects an increase in the number of young people seeking nicotine replacement therapy.

However, he thought the rise would be very small because it was "relatively rare" for children to become addicted to the drug.

Key strategy

Mr Radley said that was because young people often used cigarettes in a different way to adults, perhaps smoking only one or two a day.

He said: "It's not until they get older that they actually start to smoke heavily and so for most young people, the thought of smoking cessation interventions that we'd use with adults are not appropriate.

"I think it'll still be relatively rare, but we've got services out there with the capacity to take them if they choose to give up smoking."

We've been working for a number of years with young people to try and get through the message that smoking isn't what you should choose to do Andrew RadleyPublic health consultant

NHS Tayside received £159,000 of funding from the Scottish Government for health projects for teenagers.

They included a range of measures, including dance and drama workshops, aimed at getting the anti-smoking message across to children.

Mr Radley said: "We recognise in NHS Tayside that preventing young people from starting smoking is a key strategy in improving the health of our local population.

"We've got a programme of smoking prevention and smoking cessation services right across Tayside and we've been working for a number of years with young people to try and get through the message that smoking isn't what you should choose to do.

"We also work very closely with trading standards to reduce the supply."

Mr Radley added a programme of mystery shoppers using young people had been successful in Dundee and had confirmed most traders in the city did not sell tobacco to children.