A New Year – A New Quit Smoking Campaign
According to a recent research, almost half of smokers in England have resolved to quit smoking in the New Year. In New York was lunched a new anti-tobacco campaign “Stop Smoking Quit Kit”. The new campaign contains calming audio downloads, a stress toy and a tool for to help smokers work out how much money they are saving by quitting.
More than half of smokers (54%) want help to control their cravings, found researchers.
However a smokers’ group criticized the money spent on the campaign and said that only smokers could decide to quit or not.
The NHS Stop Smoking Services explained that nicotine gum and patches were the most popular aids to quitting. For example, 42% of smokers planed to use a Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) this New Year.
Public Health Minister Gillian Merron declared: “Stopping smoking is hard – it takes a lot of effort and willpower. At any time around seven out of 10 smokers actually want to quit smoking. The government has worked with experts and smokers to make a tailored set of tools for to help everyone who wants to quit.”
But Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said: “Another day, another quit smoking campaign. You would think that the government would give it rest – but they can’t oppose the temptation of another initiative, even over Christmas. If people choose to stop smoking, that’s a matter for them, not the government.”
Latest research showed that 770,000 smokers tried to stop in January 2009 and research suggested 5% of them are likely to last at least a year (38,500). But the majority of successful quitters do not stop on their first quit strive. Four out of every five smokers have tried and failed to quit in the past.
For example, Kevin Hood, from London, quitted smoking as one of his new year’s decisions using his local NHS Stop Smoking Service.
He declared: “After almost a quarter of a century smoking I decided enough was enough and last Christmas I decided to make it my new year’s resolution to kick the habit. I have now been smoke-free for nearly a year.”
Researchers concluded that stopping smoking can be hard and difficult – but millions of people have successfully quit for good.
