Swindon smokers encouraged to quit this Stoptober
Almost one in ten people in the town smoke
Swindon's Stop Smoking Service is urging locals to consider their relationship with cigarettes this October.
It is as Swindon Borough Council's public health team is participating in the national Stoptober campaign which offers support to those determined to quit.
According to the NHS, a smoker's body starts to recover within only eight hours of quitting with carbon monoxide levels having reduced by half.
Mike McEwan, Tobacco Control Public Health Practitioner at Swindon Borough Council, said: “It's more of a hope-based campaign. So, focusing on regaining your health via quitting and the support you can get to help quit.
“The tagline of this campaign is ‘Let's quit smoking together this October’, focusing on the evidence that you're three to four times more likely to stop smoking if you refer it up to your local stop smoking service and receive their behavioural support.”
Almost one in ten people (9.7%) in Swindon are smokers.
With more than 233,000 living in the town, this means that 23,000 people in Swindon regularly smoke cigarettes.
The main reasons for quitting are cost with an average smoker spending £2,000 a year on cigarettes, relationships, health issues and pregnancies.
However, around six percent of pregnant women still smoke.
“In some areas, smoking is still really normalised”, explained Mr McEwan.
“There's areas, typically where income is a little bit lower and there might be more deprivation, where smoking rates are higher than the average, sometimes up to double of that 9.7%.”
People who quit in October feel significantly less tobacco cravings from the new year
Support focuses around making sure the individual is in touch with an advisor who can keep them on the right track.
At the start and during especially challenging times, it is often recommended to swap cigarettes for vapes.
“Vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking in the sense that it contains no tar and no tobacco. You're not burning anything. The carbon monoxide in that is what can cause things like heart disease.
“So, I would much rather people relapse to a vape than relapse to a cigarette because that's where you're worst in your chances of things like cancer or cardiovascular disease”, Mr McEwan added.
“We wouldn't recommend a vape for someone who's not smoking, but certainly for someone that is smoking, it's a really good- and probably the most popular – cessation aid at the moment.”
The Stoptober campaign is exactly as long as it takes to increase someone’s chances of stopping for good.
If a person does not smoke for 28 days, they are four to five times more likely to not relapse.
Once they make it to three months, they experience significantly less cravings.
This year, the NHS has also added an app to the campaign where people who are unable to contact their Stop Smoking Service the conventional way can access support via a chat.
“Maybe it's not easy for them to access traditional support, maybe they're shift workers, maybe there's certain apprehension or concern they have about working with traditional services”, said Mr McEwan.
“This way, they can quit on their own terms through an app. You still get the behavioural support through that, but it's 24/7 availability.”
You can contact Swindon's Stop Smoking Service by sending an email to swindon.stopsmoking@nhs.net or by calling 07341077530.