More kick the habit after workplace ban on smoking (From The Northern Echo)

More kick the habit after workplace ban on smoking

8:38am Monday 7th April 2008

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THE introduction of last summer's workplace smoking ban led to a huge surge in the number of smokers wanting to quit, according to health bosses.

NHS smoking cessation workers in County Durham and Darlington reported that an extra 886 smokers applied to join quitting courses between July and August last year, compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

This represented a 72 per cent increase in demand.

Smoking cessation services across the North-East are hoping to build on this figure by recruiting more specialist smoking advisors across the region.

An action plan has also been established to try to encourage more pregnant women to give up smoking across the North- East.

In the region, about 25 per cent of women continue to smoke through pregnancy, endangering the health of their babies.

As well as reporting a big surge in demand for stop smoking services, the NHS in the region is also reporting that for the first time, prescriptions for a recently developed and highly effective drug called Champix has exceeded prescriptions for more traditional nicotine replacement therapies including gum and patches.

Champix is the first effective drug to help people give up smoking, which does not contain nicotine.

It works by stimulating the area of the brain which responds to nicotine in cigarettes but also making cigarettes smell and taste disgusting.

The latest figures from County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trusts (PCT) show that Champix was used by 1,235 smokers between October and December last year, compared with 1,025 smokers who used conventional nicotine replacement therapies.

Darcy Brown, tobacco lead for Darlington PCT, said that Champix had been a boon to the stop-smoking services and was increasingly being requested by smokers.

The quit rate achieved with Champix in County Durham and Darlington is 61 per cent, compared with only 42 per cent with nicotine replacement therapies.

The Department of Health is recommending that all PCTs set tough new targets for stop-smoking services based on the previous three years' figures.

But despite the North-East having the best stop-smoking success rates in England, it is understood that the North-East Strategic Health Authority does not believe that the Government's targets are challenging enough.

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