Ecigs Helping Norfolk’s Smokers
Electronic cigarettes are being used to help long-term smokers in Norfolk finally quit their smoking habits
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by Dave Cross
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Quitting smoking always involved the majority of smokers attempting to go “cold turkey” in January, with virtually all attempts ending in failure. Slowly, more quit services across England are adopting vaping as a method of supporting cessation attempts.
Norfolk is one such place, as the County Council has partnered with Smokefree Norfolk and a local vendor to offer a voucher that can be exchanged for a starter kit and e-liquid.
So far, Smokefree Norfolk has distributed 742 vouchers to smokers.
James Wade, Smokefree Norfolk’s operations manager said: “Public Health England estimate e-cigarettes to be 95% less harmful to health than tobacco cigarettes. If an adult who smokes makes the switch to an e-cigarette, they can improve the quality of their life long-term.
Norfolk County Council’s director of public health, Dr Louise Smith added: “One in two people who smoke die of a disease caused by their smoking. When we try to help someone quit smoking, we can work with someone to see whether they want to quit completely or cut down. Talking to people at regular intervals could help them identify things that will help them quit. Prescribing a replacement for nicotine can be helpful, such as patches, gum, and drugs.
“Recently we've been trialling vaping. The best option would be to quit completely but that's very difficult for many people because cigarettes are so addictive. There are hundreds of chemicals and poisons in cigarettes and the vast majority of those chemicals and poisons are not in vapes. The evidence is very strong that you will do yourself far less damage vaping than smoking.”
Paul Angel told local journalists how he has been smoking since he was 12: “I smoke about 10 or 12 a day. I have been wanting to quit smoking and I know I should do. I would consider using the voucher scheme - some of my mates have stopped smoking using e-cigs.”
Neil Cozens told them how he has been smoke-free since 2014 thanks to switching to vaping: “I was a smoker for 25 years. I tried to quit cold turkey a few times, but the best I could do was half a day. I've now been a vaper for eight years and I've never been tempted to smoke.”
Dr Smith continued: “A pattern seen across the country is that lower income areas have more smokers in them. However, anything we can do to reduce the number of smokers is still valuable. You can quit, but you may have to try a number of times, but it is possible, and I would encourage people to try."
Norfolk smokers wanting to try vaping and applying for a voucher can either ask their GP for a referral, call 0800 0854 113, or contact Smokefree Norfolk directly on its website.
Photo Credit:
Photo by Ian Dinmore on Unsplash
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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