We will help you to give up
Regional government launches new campaign to reduce smoking related deaths
THE REGIONAL government published statistics this week showing that 22% of households in the Valencia region have at least one smoker.
This comes as the department for health revealed a new plan to reduce the number of smokers in the region. A department spokesman noted that this has been drawn up with the help of experts in the field, scientists and citizens’ groups.
Their research shows that men are giving up cigarettes at a faster rate than women, although there are still more men (23.4%) than women (20.3%) who smoke in the region. Councillor for health Ana Barceló said: “We are coordinating all the measures at our disposal in order to reduce the numbers of people who smoke.
“We are also creating more smoke-free areas to protect people from the harmful effects of cigarettes.”
She noted that 2,470 people died from lung cancer in 2016, which accounted for 29% of the total deaths in Valencia that year.
A massive 80% of the fatalities were men.
Despite this, Sra Barceló pointed out that in the last 15 years the number of men dying from lung cancer has gone down by 15% but for women it has gone up by a massive 85% and is now the third biggest killer of women.
She also noted that the habit is linked to other cancers such as throat, kidney and pancreas, etc.
“The public health service has therapeutic resources to help people who are addicted to nicotine,” she added.
Sra Barceló said they will make treatments under the public health service more widely available and launch a campaign to train more health professionals to help smokers to give up.