Public Health Activities

The RCPE has, in recent years, been heavily involved in seeking to promote and influence the public health. This has largely focussed on two areas – smoking and alcohol.

Smoking

The RCPE has been actively involved in influencing public health policy on smoking for a number of years, both in Scotland and the UK. We were originally responsible for establishing ASH Scotland in 1973 and more recently have been an active partner in the Scotland Cleaner Air Now Coalition and the Scottish Coalition on Tobacco which successfully influenced the introduction of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places in 2006, and legislation to end point of sale advertising and ban vending machines in 2010. At a UK level we have also been involved in influencing UK health policy in relation to tobacco advertising. The RCPE supports ASH Scotland's Beyond Smoke-free campaign.

Alcohol

The RCPE has been very active in raising awareness of the adverse health effects of excessive alcohol consumption – an escalating problem in Scotland where we have one of the highest rates of deaths arising from alcoholic liver disease in the world. Our activities in this area are primarily channelled through the work of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP), a medical advocacy group on alcohol which was established by the RCPE and other Medical Royal Colleges in Scotland on 1 November 2006, with financial support from the Scottish Government.

Access the SHAAP website for further information.