Shropshire’s public health team supports national smokefree campaign

Shropshire residents are being asked to make a pledge to turn their homes and cars into smokefree areas as part of a national smokefree campaign launched today -Tuesday 4 June 2013.

Public Health England’s Smokefree Homes and Cars campaign is being supported by Shropshire’s Council’s public health team and Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and raises awareness of the dangers from smoking in the home and car, in particular the health impact it has on children.

Millions of children in the UK are exposed to secondhand smoke that puts them at increased risk of lung disease, meningitis and cot death, and each year secondhand smoke causes thousands of children to be hospitalised.

In Shropshire it is estimated that there are almost 45,000 smokers, equating to 18% of the adult population.  Shropshire’s public health team and the CCG is encouraging smokers to consider the effects their smoking has on their family, and to stop smoking in their homes and cars.

In addition to your family being healthier, there are many other benefits of having a smokefree home:

• smokers may find it easier to give up smoking if their home is smokefree
• children are healthier, breathing in smokefree air
• risk of health problems is reduced
• children will be less likely to start smoking in adolescence
• the risk of cigarette-related fire is reduced
• homes will be cleaner and fresher
• pets are likely to be healthier and live longer.

Karen Calder, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for health, said: 

“Most people are aware of how smoking affects them as an individual, but may not realise the effect that exposure to secondhand smoke has on their family.  People who breathe in secondhand smoke are at risk of the same diseases as smokers.  There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke.  The best way to protect you and your family from the hazards of tobacco smoke is to not allow anyone to smoke inside your home or car.

“We are committed to supporting people to quit smoking for good, but for residents who are not ready to give up smoking we want to highlight how secondhand smoke can seriously affect not only their health, but the health of their children.  So please, protect your child by making your home smokefree.”

Just a few basic actions can help protect your child from secondhand smoke:

• Choose not to smoke in your home and car and do not allow family and visitors to do so. Infants and toddlers are especially vulnerable to the health risks from secondhand smoke
• Do not allow childcare providers or others who work in your home to smoke
• Until you can quit, choose to smoke outside.  Moving to another room or opening a window is not enough to protect your children.

Professor Rod Thomson, Shropshire Council’s director of public health, said:

“We are working with partners across Shropshire, including children’s centres, the Fire and Rescue Service and housing associations to encourage residents to quit smoking. Stopping smoking is the best thing you can do for your health and the health of those around you.  However, if smokers are not ready to quit yet, I would urge them to adopt a smokefree home.

“Secondhand smoke contains harmful cancer-causing toxins and poisons that are unknowingly damaging children across the county every day.  Over 80% of secondhand smoke is invisible and odourless, so no matter how careful you are, children still breathe in the harmful poisons.  Not only does smoking in front of children directly impact their health, but children of smokers are 90 per cent more likely to become smokers themselves.”

Dr Caron Morton, Accountable Officer for Shropshire CCG, added:

“If you smoke, quitting is the single best way of improving your health and preventing illness.  If you are considering giving up smoking, remember you are more likely to succeed with NHS help and support.  As a local GP I see the affect smoking has on people’s health, whether it is your breathing now or future preventable illness; I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is to seek support to stop smoking.  It is never too late to quit. 

“I would also like to encourage pregnant women to ask your midwife about the range of support available.  As a mother you want to give your child the best start in life, but by continuing to smoke you could risk your child’s health.”

If you smoke around your children, they can inhale the equivalent of 150 cigarettes per year.  Pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke can also pass on harmful chemicals to their unborn child.

For help and advice please visit www.nhs.uk/smokefree and order your free Smokefree Kit. 

If you would like help to stop smoking contact Help 2 Quit, your local NHS Stop Smoking Service on 01743 366940, email Help2Quit@shropcom.nhs.uk or visit www.shropscommunityhealth.nhs.uk. 

Further information

Shropshire facts and statistics (Source: Shropshire Health of Young People Survey 2008)

• Around a third of pupils (33.7%) report living in a household with someone who is a smoker .
• There appears to be a relationship between living with a smoker and pupils’ own smoking behaviour.  Those who live with smokers are significantly more likely to be regular smokers themselves (9.6% compared with 5.5%).
• It is estimated that there are almost 45,000 smokers in Shropshire aged 18 years or above (18% of the adult population). 

National facts and stats

• Up to five million children across the UK are thought to be regularly exposed to SHS in the home (Source: Kabir Z et al, Secondhand smoke exposure in cars, Sept 2009) 
• Exposure to SHS results in 300,000 GP visits and 9,500 hospital admissions for children each year, and the cost to the NHS of treating SHS-related illness in children alone is £26 million per annum (Source: Kabir Z et al, Secondhand smoke exposure in cars, Sept 2009)
• Children of smokers are 90 per cent more likely to become smokers themselves.  In England and Wales, 23,000 young people each year start smoking by the age of 15 as a result of exposure to smoking in the home (Source: Passive smoking and children. Royal College of Physicians, London, 2010) 
• Over 8 million people in England smoke. While smoking rates have declined over past decades, the rate of decline has slowed in recent years (Source: Integrated Household Survey, 2011)
• The tobacco control plan sets up an ‘ambition’ to reduce smoking prevalence among all adults in England from its current level of 21%, to 18.5% by 2015. (Source: Healthy Lives, Healthy People: a tobacco control plan for England, 2011)
• Most smokers have tried to quit and failed before.  Although there are almost five million attempts to quit each year in England, only around 7% of quitters succeed in stopping for one year (Source: Smoking Toolkit Study, 2012)
• Smoking is the biggest cause of premature death in England and each year it accounts for over 100,000 deaths in the UK and one in two long-term smokers will die prematurely from a smoking disease (Sources: NHS Information Centre, Statistics on Smoking, England 2011;  Doll, R., Peto, R., Wheatley, K. Gray, R. & Sutherland, I. (1994). Mortality in relation to smoking: 40 years’ observations on male British doctors. British Medical Journal, 309, 901-911.)