CELEBRITY STYLE SPY: See all the latest celeb photos

Fewer smokers quitting the habit

By Suzannah Ramsdale on Wednesday 21 January 2009

Print
Share
Comment

A woman smoking a cigarette

Fewer smokers are managing to kick the habit despite a significant increase in the amount of NHS spending on quitting services.

Figures show that 32% fewer people quit smoking from April 2008 to September 2008 compared with the same period in 2007 – when the smoking ban was brought in.

By contrast, the amount the NHS spent on stop smoking services skyrocketed from £26million to £33million.

Many critics are now arguing that the figures prove that the smoking ban has had only limited success and although there was a rise in the number of quitters when the law was implemented in July 2007, this was short-lived.

But ministers are quick to point out that the main aim of the ban is to protect people from second-hand smoke and not just to encourage smokers to give up.

According to the NHS, a person successfully quits smoking if they manage to keep off the cigarettes for four weeks.

And the number of people managing to do that fell from 176,277 in 2007 to 133,704 in 2008.

Tim Straughan, chief executive of The NHS Information Centre, said, 'The report shows the NHS is spending more than ever to support people to quit through its stop smoking services.

'The numbers who kicked the habit in April to September 2008 were substantially lower than in 2007 when the smoking ban came in.

He added, 'However, they were still higher than the same period in 2006 which was a more typical year to compare them with.'

CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH NEWS

Wednesday 21 January 2009

Have your say ...

Add your own comment

Ministers say the main aim of the Ban was to protect people from Second hand smoke ? not that old chestnut !Who was worried about a few whiffs of tobacco smoke untill ASH and the Like made a big issue of it ? harm from SHS is laughable and unproven and some Smokers have inhaled concentrated amounts of tobacco smoke for seventy years or more and are still around,tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth ! well you won,t brainwash me!
Comment by Chris W on January 28 23:15

People don't want to be TOLD what to do. We'll quit IF and WHEN we want to - NOT when a nanny-state TELLS us to do it.

Comment by Rob Cook on January 29 04:58

Wonder why we are the worst placed country in Europe (or is it the World) to cope with this global recession? Could it be because we are about the only country to implement a total smoking ban?

Just wondered, as other countries that have allowed choice are in a much better position?

Dictatorship never did really work that well in the long run, did it? All dictators eventually get overturned!
Comment by Lyn on January 29 09:49

If this government is serious about saving lives, it would do something about the pot-holes that we have in our roads, and the "give way" signs that are obscured by overgrown trees and hedges.

Leave us smokers, who contribute £Billions in taxes to the treasury, alone. And why not give us and Pub Landlords, and Restaurant Owners a choice?

I was thankful to be born in a "Free" country, which my father fought for in the war and suffered the wounds for the rest of his life. Where will I need to go to die (and smoke) happy - Germany?
Comment by Daryl Mullins on January 29 22:52

This Labour government is DICTATING lifestyle choices. Its total indoor smoking ban means that around four million people stay in each evening rather than going to their local; to avoid spending much of their evening in the cold in order to smoke. In 2006 and in 2007 The Office of National Statistics reported that the majority of those questioned favoured choice of smoking and non smoking areas over a total smoking ban in pubs and clubs. Thanks Labour for listening to your people! Giving up smoking is a personal decision, not one to be dictated by governments. If smoking rooms were permitted in pubs it would halt the problem of thirty eight closing per week. The smoking ban is a complete and utter failure achieving nothing.
Comment by james on January 30 00:04

I am sure the £32,000,000 would be better spent on what the NHS is for (that is treating people for illness) It should not be used as a government social engineering propaganda machine, what next £500,000,000 spent on alchol cessation, coffee cessation, cured meat cessation, house hold products cessation, etc.
all these idiots thinking up dictorial messages in these QUANGOES should be closed for all our benefit.
Comment by Greg Burrows on January 30 18:07

Read all 6 comments