Stubbing it out plan formulates
A SCHEME to reduce smoking in one of the borough’s worst-affected areas is proving a success.
The North East Area Council, responsible for villages including Cudworth, Grimethorpe, Monk Bretton, Royston and Shafton, has approximately 8,000 smokers.
According to a report, associated knock-on costs – including healthcare and productivity – top £10m per year and 3.4 tonnes of smoking-related litter is collected.
A stop smoking service, commissioned by councillors in partnership with the NHS, seeks to get 55 per cent of users quitting within four weeks and a progress report reveals the target is being hit.
An annual forecast suggests 68 per cent will quit within the timeframe by the end of the year.
It added: “The aim of the initiative is to help and support people to stop smoking through accessing an outreach service near to where they live.
“Just over one in four adults in the North East Area Council’s villages are smokers.
“Rates have been consistently higher than Barnsley’s rates at each point since 2013, but the current rate of 25.5 per cent is the lowest since that year.”
According to a survey, less than two-thirds of the public recognised a cough for more than three weeks as a possible symptom of lung cancer and almost a quarter of respondents said they would do nothing – or wait – if they had this symptom.
Only half said they would contact their GP if they had a cough for three weeks or more, despite this being a key symptom of lung cancer.
“The government’s objective is to make England smoke-free by 2030, but without intervention this will be missed by an estimated seven years,” the report added.
“However, the poorest areas in society are expected to miss this by even further.
“It’s clear that to truly ‘level up’ health, the government must tackle the crippling burden that smoking has on our most disadvantaged communities.”