Smoking is a hot issue for both the government and individuals who smoke. Government health services in particular want to raise awareness of the problems caused by smoking in order to decrease in the number of UK smokers, as the cost of treating people who develop smoking related illnesses impacts greatly on the health service budget. Individuals worried about their own health and who want to seek treatment need to find services they can use in order to quit smoking. The NHS quit smoking campaign aims to increase awareness of the tools and services available to those who wish to give up smoking. It advises that quit smoking kits are available from your GP for free or from a private service for a cost much smaller than a lifetime of buying cigarettes.
Learning how to stop smoking is easy for some a difficult for others. Some people are successful the first time round and others need to try a few different methods before they are completely free from tobacco. Services available include: a quit line which offers quitters moral support and medical help in the form of Zyban and Champix prescription medications for smoking cessation .
One very strong campaign against smoking involved children of smokers asking their parents to quit. Research carried out by the government highlighted that children were fully aware of the fatal risks of smoking and that nearly all wanted their parents to stop. Many smokers are motivated by their loved ones to smoke and want to see their children grow up, making this latest campaign the strongest yet. The campaign message is reinforced by new findings documented in a report by the Royal College of Physician which correlates breathing problems in children such as asthma and persistent coughs with living with a parent who is a smoker. Protecting loved ones from poisonous cigarette fumes is of paramount importance and the evidence that passive smoking exposure significantly increases the risk of smoking related disease in children is very strong.
Smokers may well be aware of the risks to their own health caused by their habit, however, few realise the direct impact smoking has on the most vulnerable in society and the damage they can cause to a loved one who has no say on whether they want to breathe in tar filled air. Scientists have proposed that the government respond adequately to the Royal College of Physician’s report suggesting a smoking ban in the smallest of confined spaces: cars. The proposal is controversial and may be difficult to police, however aims to extend the ban on smoking in public spaces to private areas where non-smoking members may still suffer health the consequences of another person’s smoking habit.
Statistics indicate that much few people smoke compared to 20 years ago and that the number of smoking related diseases is also decreasing, however we have still got a fair way to go in convincing smokers they do not need to light up.