Ban helps to light way in quit surge
HEALTH bosses have hailed last year's smoking ban as a big success which has led to a surge in the number of people quitting the habit.
Latest figures from NHS stop smoking services show 1,227 smokers in locally set a quit date between last July and September – more than twice as many compared with the same period in 2006.
Of those, 832 – just over two-thirds – succeeded in staying off the weed for at least four weeks.
Public health experts say the ban on smoking in enclosed public places which came into force in England last July 1 has played a major role in encouraging more people to give up.
Now they are preparing to lay on extra clinics and draft in more stop smoking advisers should the predicted new year rush materialise.
Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust deputy director of public health and wellbeing Imogen Stephens said: 'The smoking ban has made a difference. We are pleased with the increase in smokers signing up to quit and are confident it will continue into 2008.
'The smoking ban has had an impact on smokers, particularly since the winter weather has come in. To be forced out into the cold and wet for a cigarette is a disincentive for smokers.
'The fact it is becoming more socially unacceptable to smoke in public is pushing more people towards quitting. It sets a fantastic example, but we have got a long way to go.'
Shock figures show an average of 31 per cent of adults in our area smoke – well above the national average of 23 per cent.
Health chiefs have now set a target to slash that figure to one in four adults by April 2009.
Specialist stop smoking advisers are being employed specifically to target pregnant women, mental health service users, drug addicts and people living in deprived areas and help them quit.
Dr Stephens added: 'We would really like to be deluged with people trying to give up this new year. As well as services offered at GPs' surgeries, in pharmacies and community centres, we also have access to back-up staff whom we can call in.
'People should not be put off by the thought of a waiting list because there won't be any. We have access to additional stop smoking advisers and are confident we have got the capacity to cope with the extra demand.'
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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