Can technology trump tobacco?

Mobile phones are much criticised for their corrosive effects on society, often with good reason.

Only today, there’s a new report out suggesting teenagers would rather use social media to talk to someone they don’t know than – heaven forbid – strike up a face-toface conversation with them.

But perhaps there’s a chance that our addictive relationship with the devices can be put to a healthier purpose.

Experts at NHS Fife and St Andrews University have joined forces to create a new mobile phone app which tracks smokers’ movements and can tell if they’re in a place where they are likely to be tempted by a cigarette.

If it senses an oncoming craving, it sends a “supportive” message to the user, reminding them that they might want to do something more wholesome with their idle hands.

It all sounds very Big Brother, but trials carried out among smokers at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital last year suggest it works. And set against the background of Fife’s appalling record on smoking, it has to be worth a try.

One in four deaths in the kingdom is tobacco-related and lung cancer is its biggest killer. Fife smoking rates are the third highest in Scotland and, more alarming still, the region has more 15-year-olds lighting up than anywhere else in the country.

If an app can get through to a wavering smoker where health professionals and loved ones cannot, maybe there’s hope for that nagging voice in all our pockets after all.