Stop smoking services go ecig friendly – quit and save
Smokers across the North East are being encouraged to give themselves an instant pay rise this summer by quitting – with stop smoking services also supporting people using electronic cigarettes as part of their quit attempt.
Fresh and Stop Smoking Services are encouraging the region’s 460,000 smokers to give stopping another go – and enjoy better health and more money for summer days out and holidays.
Stop Smoking Services are inviting anyone using an electronic cigarette as part of their quit attempt to get in touch and benefit from friendly local support and expert advice to give people the best chance of success.
Joanna Feeney, manager of Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland NHS Stop Smoking Service said: “The summer is a time when we want to be out and about, doing nice things and having a bit of money in our pocket. Quitting smoking can give you an instant pay rise.
“NHS Stop Smoking Services are proven to give smokers their best chance of stopping smoking. There are lots of effective ways to quit, and many people are choosing to use e-cigs to quit smoking. We are an e-cig-friendly Stop Smoking Service, and although we can’t supply people with e-cigs, we can provide tailored support to e-cig users to successfully help them to stop smoking tobacco.”
Councillor Lesley Spillard, North Tyneside Council’s Cabinet member for Public Health said: “Giving up smoking is not always easy and anything that can help people to be smoke free in the long run is a good thing.
“E-cigs are one way of helping you take control of life, instead of cigarettes controlling you. That is a great feeling – and will help you put more money back into your pocket this summer.”
Even budget tobacco brands are a massive drain on smokers’ pockets and family incomes. Prices listed on mySupermarket.co.uk shows how much smokers are forking out:
- A 12 a day budget brand smoker buying in bulk (five packs of 18 cigarettes) would be spending around £32 a week, £138 a month and £1664 a year on cigarettes.
- A 18 a day budget brand smoker (buying five packs of the same budget brand in bulk and buying two extra packs of 18 cigarettes) would be spending around £45.60 a week, £197 a month, and £2371 a year on cigarettes.
Lisa Surtees, Acting Director of Fresh, said: “These are pretty huge sums of money mounting up week by week on cigarettes when you add them up.
“It’s the sort of money that could buy a new TV or 3 piece suite, a whole new wardrobe of designer clothes or a fantastic holiday for the family.”
The latest research on electronic cigarettes indicates:
- They are considered to be much safer since they do not contain tar and carbon monoxide like lit cigarettes
- The health risks of passive exposure to electronic cigarette vapour are likely to be extremely low
- People who use electronic cigarettes combined with NHS Stop Smoking Services support have one of the highest success rates of any quitters.
- Electronic cigarettes are one of the most popular way smokers try to stop, with no current evidence that young people who have never smoked are taking them up
While e-cigarettes are not medically regulated, Stop Smoking Services are not recommending their use in pregnancy.
An estimated 8% of adults in the North East have tried electronic cigarettes or vapourisers and around 6% have tried and still use them. Most people who have tried them in the NE have done so to try to stop smoking completely, to reduce their tobacco consumption, or to protect others from secondhand tobacco smoke intake.
Help to quit
If you want to quit, you’re up to four times more likely to succeed with NHS support. Pop into your local pharmacy, ask at your GP, or call:
County Durham NHS Stop Smoking Service
0800 011 3405
Darlington NHS Stop Smoking Service
0300 123 1044 (national quitline only)
Gateshead – Live Well Gateshead
0800 0149092
Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland NHS Stop Smoking Service
01642 383819
Newcastle NHS Stop Smoking Service
0191 2292911
North Tyneside Stop Smoking Service
call 0345 2000 101 and say ‘NO SMOKE’
Northumberland NHS Stop Smoking Service
01670 813135
South Tyneside – Change4Life South Tyneside
0191 4247300
Stockton and Hartlepool NHS Stop Smoking Service
01642 383819
Sunderland Stop Smoking Service
0800 107 0741