Smoking quit rate highest for decade

THE proportion of people who have successfully quit smoking this year is at its highest in more than a decade, new figures have revealed.

Data from the UCL Smoking Toolkit Study shows that in England during this year, there has been an increase of almost twothirds in the quitting success rate, rising from 14 per cent to 23 per cent, the highest since at least 2007.

There has also been a surge in smokers in England trying to quit, increasing by 22 per cent from 2019, with experts saying attitudes have been changed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Action on Smoking and Health ( Ash) calculates that over a million people in the UK stopped smoking during the lockdown period.

Smoking prevalence in England is also at an all- time low of 13.9 per cent.

Public Health England’s tobacco control programme manager, Scott Crosby, said: “We know that the pandemic has affected many of our lives but also our personal health and vulnerability to illness and we want to see how we can build our immune system.

“So there’s multiple reasons for this, obviously being in lockdown with family and friends and not being able to socialise but I think the growing importance of people’s personal health has really increased over that time.

He added: “It’s brought it to the top of the to- do list.”

Health organisations including Ash, the British Lung Foundation, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK have backed the Stoptober campaign calling for more people to quit smoking.

Stoptober challenges people to give up smoking for 28 days, making them five times more likely to quit for good, according to research.