August 24, 2010 3.16 pm This story is over 162 months old

1,000 Lincoln smokers kicked the habit

Nicotine patch: 1,000 Lincolnites have quit smoking using the Phoenix Stop Smoking service, but other measures are needed.

Exactly 1,000 Lincolnites have quit smoking over the last 12 months, according to figures from the Phoenix Stop Smoking Service. The quit rate is just over 50%, as 991 people in the city who used the service did not manage to kick the habit.

The Phoenix Stop Smoking Service provides a free service as part of the NHS to anyone who would like to stop smoking within Lincolnshire. The service helped 6,010 people in the county to stop smoking in the last year.

In February the service opened a one stop health shop on the High Street, where the old tourist information centre used to be.  Out of 572 people coming through its doors seeking advice to help smoking, the Phoenix shop helped 239 quit the habit.

The Abbey Ward in Lincoln had the most people signing up to the service, and the most quitters (185). The Hartsholme Ward had the least sign-ups (73), and had 44 people quit. The Park and Moorland Wards also topped the quitters numbers, with 109 and 101 people respectively.

The real issue

“While I welcome the fact that more and more people are giving up, the real issue is making sure they don’t start smoking in the first place,” said Eileen Streets of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

“One of the ways we can address this is by making sure the Parliamentary decision, which was taken in 2009, to ban cigarette vending machines from pubs and remove tobacco displays from shops and supermarkets, goes ahead.

“The tobacco industry and retailers are lobbying to have the law revoked and we are urging the coalition Government to implement the legislation,” Streets added.

Photo: Isabel Bloedwater