‘Astonishing’ 20,000 Liverpool smokers quit the habit
Aug 6 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post
A casual cigarette will have to be stubbed out (200)
MORE than 20,000 smokers in Liverpool have quit the habit during the last three years, new research has revealed.
The number of smokers has dropped to 28.7% in the city according to “astonishing” figur-es released by SmokeFree Liver-pool, a drop of 6% since 2005.
But city doctors say parents are still ignoring advice to kick the habit, with large numbers of children being admitted with chest infections, asthma and ear infections.
The research, which took place between February and June 2008, was commissioned to confirm the impact of the smoking ban. It shows 3.6% of residents stopped smoking in 2007 and the first part of this year. The research also shows that support for Smoke-Free legislation is at a new high.
Gideon Ben-Tovim, who is chair of Liverpool Primary Care Trust and joint chair of Smoke-Free Liverpool stakeholder group, said: “This is great news.
“We have already seen a signifi-cant drop in some kinds of heart conditions, and this trend should only continue. But what we must remember is that Liverpool started out as the very worst city in the country for smoking prev-alence – and even with this aston-ishing fall in the adult smoking rate, the city’s figures are still way above the national average.”
There is also more work to be done in terms of where people smoke, with the research reveal-ing that 27% of residents in Liverpool smoke in the home around children – amounting to 24,000 children and young people being exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis.
“This figure is down from 39% in 2004 and has dropped by 5% in one year. It shows an increasing awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke and that pre-dictions that more people would smoke at home because they couldn’t smoke in the pub were unfounded,” said Mr Ben-Tovim.
The figures also reveal 26% of smokers intend to give up in the coming year in the city and pro-portionally more people give up smoking in areas where preva-lence is already low.Mother-of-two Debbie Evans, 42, gave up smoking nine months ago, after her father died of emphysema.
The Everton resident said: “I watched my dad die and had to give up for my family.
“It is my health I worry about, not money. I was getting far too thin and my size eight clothes were becoming baggy. I am a size 10 now and feel much healthier.
“I was helped by the Fag Ends service run by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and I would recommend it to anybody else who wants to give up.”
Share
