The life of cigarettes will one day come to an end. There will be no cigarettes on the streets and in shops, and maybe the tobacco tree will have found other users. This is according to researchers who have predicted that the last smoker to ever be seen in England will be in Derby in the year 2050. Cigarettes only have 30 years to exist.
According to Frontier Economics, the current 7.4 million smokers will have quit their bad habits in 30 years. This is affirmed by the quitting trends which have indicated a reducing number of smokers since the 1990s.
Cigarette smoking is estimated to kill about 200 people every day. Whether this is the motivation behind quitting, the research suggests that the rate of quitting varies from one city to another.
Bristol is estimated to host the last smoker in 2024, all the other having quit the smoke. York and Wokingham, the Berks, will closely follow York with both housing the last smoker in 2026.
In 2027, the number of smokers will have reduced to zero in Yorkshire's East Riding, Portsmouth, Blackburn and Darwen (Lancashire), and Reading. In 2028, Bournemouth, Buckinghamshire, and Milton Keynes will see the last smoker quit. Southampton will be among the last cities to see the last smoker; the city will hold on to the smoke until 2049.
From the study, the last cigarette and the last smoker will be seen in Derby in 2050. Philip Morris, a tobacco manufacturer, commissioned this study that predicted the unprecedented end to tobacco smoking. The researchers based their analysis on employment, income, health, and education. They analysed the factors that lead to quitting and how fast each of the factors results in halting.
National Health Services (NHS) cessation services have been used increasingly in the past few years, and so have heated tobacco and e-cigs, and this has accounted for quitting behaviour. According to Public Health England, the use of e-cigs is levelling, and the harm caused by tobacco can be reduced if more smokers are encouraged to use vaporisers instead of smoking tobacco.
According to Mark McGregor from Philip Morris, there are tens of alternatives to smoking. If explored, these alternatives can see more people giving up cigarettes for good. Among these alternatives is vaping.
Philip Morris plans to produce smoke-free products instead of cigarettes. While the reducing number of smokers might influence the decision, it is also the firm's contribution towards a smoking-free world. By producing smoke-free products, such as vaporisers, the company estimates that the last cigarette might be seen earlier than 2050.
Cigarettes are not only for the wealthy as smokers are spread across all cities. About 20 percent of people living in deprived areas are smokers. Averagely, 22 percent of people in Kingston, upon North Lincolnshire and Hull, Blackpool, are still smokers.
The number of smokers has been reducing since 1990. In 1990, 33 percent of adults in the UK were smokers, but today, only 15 percent of adults smoke. While the population in the country has increased, it is undoubted that the number of smokers has gone down. Not everyone has believed that cigarette smoking will reduce to zero with some saying that unless cigarettes are not produced at all, smokers will always be there. Some critics say that it is not possible to tell the future based on employment, income and health data.
Content Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/last-cigarette-ever-smoked-derby-14177441