To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase public awareness of the (a) risks of mouth cancer and (b) effect of smoking on mouth cancer.
Answered on
9 December 2020
The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training has developed guidance for dentists to provide very brief advice to tobacco users and refer to local stop smoking services. Public Health England have also published the Delivering Better Oral Health guidance that contains a chapter on smoking and tobacco use, along with self-assessment tools to improve local tobacco control work and an oral cancer registrations indicator in the Public Health Profiles data for local commissioners to access.
The Government has introduced various pieces of legislation to address the harms from tobacco use and this includes graphic warnings on some tobacco packaging. We continue to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use and help people quit. In addition to this, the Oral Health Foundation Mouth Cancer Action Month campaign held in November has raised the profile of mouth cancer and the Government welcomes this.