No Smoking day will be upon us soon, and current research shows that it increasingly the territory of routine and manual groups in this country. Van drivers, builders and secretaries are labeled as the worse culprits, and more likely than managers or professionals to indulge.
The research, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), highlights a rapid fall in smoking prevalence amongst professional groups in recent years, with much slower reductions amongst routine and manual groups.
Duncan Bannatyne of BBC’s Dragons Den who is No Smoking Day president, says “The finding show that although we are managing to control the smoking epidemic amongst those who are reasonably well off, cigarettes are the primary cause of inequal health in this county.”
“The good news is most smokers want to quit, and with the expectation that expected that nearly a million people will stop on No Smoking Day 2010, the downward trend in smoking prevalence continues”. Add this to the NHS Stop Smoking Services, there probably hasn’t been a better time to stop smoking – you are 4 times more likely to succeed with this type of support.”
Assistant Director of Tobacco Studdies, Andy McEwen from University College London says: “We know it is not due to difference in motivation to quit but those from poorer backgrounds do seem to find it hard to succeed. This may be due to a number of factors: availability of cigarettes, less sympathetic environment and higher levels of nicotine dependence are possibilities”.
Duncan Bannatyne today launches the No Smoking Day campaign with a new website for smokers (ww.wequit.co.uk) featuring a version of the Queen hit ‘I want to break free’.
The No Smoking Day campaign, now in its 27th year, is run by a charity of the same name in collaboration with a range of UK public health agencies.
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