A LEADING academic has urged health professionals to champion the cause of anti-smoking drug Zyban.

While it is prescribed to hundreds of thousands of Britons, unjustified doubts about its safety are still putting some people off, said Professor Linda Ferry.

Several deaths have been linked to the drug and lawyers are looking at possible legal action.

Zyban has become a popular weapon against smoking in the North-East, which has some of highest levels of smoking in the country.

Professor Ferry said doctors should give clear messages to their patients that it was much safer to use Zyban than to carry on smoking.

Prof Ferry, of Loma Linda University in California, called in the British Medical Journal, for health workers to "refute the inaccuracies of the media and present a clear picture of the enormous problem of preventable disability and the 120,000 tobacco-related deaths a year from the 13 million smokers in the UK."

She was strongly supported by Iain Miller, chair of Northern ASH (Action on Smoking) and smoking cessation coordinator for Newcastle and North Tyneside.

"It has been used by millions of people in the US and hundreds of thousands in the UK. You would think that if there was a major problem we would know about it by now," he said.

Zyban and nicotine replacement therapy doubles a determined smoker's chances of quitting, he said and at least 2,000 people had given up smoking in Newcastle and North Tyneside after signing up for programmes which includes Zyban.

David Harris, a senior partner with clinical negligence lawyers Alexander Harris, said they had more than 40 clients who claimed to have had an adverse reaction to Zyban.

Those clients include Amanda Sinclair, 25, from Wheatley Hill, County Durham, who suffered fits after being prescribed the drug.