“The city’s director of public health, Krishna Ramkhelawon¸ said consistent figures for helping people quit smoking are behind the belief that Southend is on target to achieve the target where under 5 per cent of people are smokers. He said: “The reason why they believe that is our success rate remains quite high for the number that we are getting through the service. It has remained over 40 per cent, where most places are dropping to 30 per cent in terms of quit rate. The approach we have taken since 2018 was to move people onto vaping, the reason being that the comparative data we had in 2017 was that using tobacco was more likely to give you other forms of diseases than vaping could.”
Vaping itself has since come under the spotlight with some raising concerns it may also be harmful, especially to young people. Mr Ramkhelawon added: “There was nothing to suggest what vaping could do and that’s the piece of work that’s ongoing. We introduced in 2019 the scheme where we encouraged people to go for vaping and quit smoking and I think that’s the main reason why we are seeing a high rate of tobacco quitters. The city’s stop smoking service includes 29 GPs and 11 pharmacists signed up to provide 12 weeks of support to quitters, with the latter offering a walk-in service. Four vape shops in the city are offering a Vape Swap Smoking Service which includes a free starter kit.”
ARTICLE LINK:
Southend could be smoke free by 2030 after vape push
Store
