Rochdale smokers kick the habit

Smoking

More than 1,700 people successfully quit smoking in Rochdale in just one year after setting a date to kick the habit.

According to the NHS Information Centre between April 2009 and the end of March this year, 3,935 people set a stop date and of those 1,799 succeeded — a 46 per cent success rate.

Smokers who said they had stopped were given a carbon monoxide test four weeks after their chosen quit date to prove they had not smoked.

Ann Howarth, Stop Smoking Service Manager from Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Community Healthcare, said: “Over the last three years, in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council, we have helped 5,805 people to quit smoking – beating our local target of 5000 people. This is a great achievement but still it is estimated that 26 percent of adults in the borough smoke.

“Research shows that smokers are four times more likely to quit using NHS support. The health and financial benefits of giving up smoking will be felt almost straight away. Within eight hours, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood will be halved, and after 24 hours, carbon monoxide and nicotine are eliminated from the body and oxygen levels are returned to normal. Coughs and wheezing will decline after three to nine months of not smoking. And in the long term, after ten years of not smoking, the risk of getting lung cancer falls to half of that of a smoker.”

The figures come from a nationwide report which shows NHS Stop Smoking Services have helped more smokers than ever before to quit during 2009/10.

NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “The report shows NHS Stop Smoking Services are helping more people than ever before to quit and that they are using a number of means of offering support, including pharmacotherapies such as nicotine replacement therapies and others.

“With smoking attributed to so many hospital admissions among those who are 35 and over, it is important that people get the support they need to quit in order to remain as healthy as possible.”