A Call to Action: Successful Tobacco Control for the Future

Conference Speakers

Sheila Duffy MA, Cert.Ed, DipLIS - Director of Information and Communications ASH Scotland

Sheila Duffy has been Director of Information & Communications at ASH Scotland since 2003. In this role she was responsible for developing and communicating the evidence in favour of smoke-free public places in Scotland and influencing the development of the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act of 2005 which ended smoking in most enclosed public places. Over the course of the campaign Sheila gave regular television and radio interviews, briefed journalists on the issues, and gave evidence in person to the Scottish Parliament's Health Committee. As a member of ASH Scotland's Senior Management Team she shares responsibility for the organisation's strategic and operational planning.

Sheila chairs both the Steering and Communications group meetings of the Scottish Coalition on Tobacco (SCOT). She represents ASH Scotland on the Ministerial Age-related Sales Enforcement Group and on networks such as the international Framework Convention Alliance and Global Smoke-free Partnership.

Between 1995 and 2003 as ASH Scotland's Information Manager and previously as Health Alliances Project Officer, she took a formative role in developing ASH Scotland's policy positions, developing the websites and building external partnerships.

Before joining ASH Scotland, Sheila worked as a scriptwriter and researcher for Yorkshire TV and Grampian Television, mainly on Channel 4 programmes, and in production and European liaison with SPS Audio-Visual Ltd, a corporate video production company.

Sheila went to Cults Academy and then attended Gordonstoun School for two years on a sixth form scholarship. She graduated from Cambridge University in 1984 with a joint honours degree in English Literature and Education and a Certificate in Education. Whilst working full time at ASH Scotland, Sheila was also awarded a Diploma in Library and Information Science from The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in 2002 which she had studied for through remote learning. She was brought up in Aberdeenshire and Fife where she currently lives with her partner and two daughters.

Sheila was appointed as Chief Executive of ASH Scotland in October 2007 and will take up the post in January 2008.

Speakers abstract - Tobacco control in Scotland beyond smoke-free legislation.

ASH Scotland is the leading national voluntary organisation campaigning for effective tobacco control measures. Adult smoking prevalence in Scotland is around 27%, but smoking is concentrated in communities living in deprived circumstances where smoking rates are typically around 40%. Amongst some groups, such as people experiencing mental health problems, prevalence is as high as 70%. The Scottish Tobacco Atlas published in 2007 estimated that 24% of deaths annually in Scotland are attributable to tobacco, some 13,500 early and preventable deaths each year. Smoking prevention and cessation work and wider tobacco control measures must clearly be priority concerns for improving the health of Scotland's people.

ASH Scotland led the successful campaign to introduce comprehensive legislation to control second-hand smoke in Scotland's public places. This has been carefully monitored and demonstrated to be successful. One year after implementation, research showed a 39% drop in markers for second-hand smoke exposure amongst non-smoking adults and eleven year old children, disproving the theory that smoking would be displaced into the home. There was a 17% reduction in heart attack admissions to nine Scottish hospitals in the year following implementation, compared with an average annual reduction of 3% per year in the previous decade.

Smoke-free legislation has been an important step for Scotland with short and long term benefits, but it is only part of a range of measures needed to reduce smoking rates. In Scotland, we have a new prevention strategy which ASH Scotland helped to shape, with measures designed to reduce the number of young people becoming addicted to tobacco. ASH Scotland is also looking ahead to the next wider national tobacco control strategy and to the measures likely to be effective in making tobacco history.