The following is a press release from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. If you want to Quit, the pharmacy can help. In fact visiting a local pharmacy should be the first step for smokers who want to stub out their habit on No Smoking Day, an annual event, being held on 12 March.

This year’s theme, The Great No Smoking Day Challenge, will challenge smokers to go without cigarettes for one week in the UK’s biggest mass quit attempt. The campaign will also highlight the benefits of stopping smoking and how to get help.

Pharmacists are at the front line of helping people to stop smoking, and can provide expert advice and support. They are also among the most accessible of healthcare professionals, with branches open in the high street at convenient times, often when GP surgeries are closed. 99% of people can reach a pharmacy within 20 minutes. Appointments are usually not required and many pharmacies now offer private consultation rooms.

Surveys indicate that approximately 70% of current smokers would like to give up altogether. However, stopping smoking requires real commitment, planning and motivation. Pharmacists are ideally placed to offer guidance and support, and information on treatments available, to give people a fighting chance of giving up smoking for good.

Smoking facts and figures

• Around 12 million adults smoke cigarettes in Great Britain

• Surveys indicate approximately 70% of current smokers would like to give up altogether

• About half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their addiction

• Every year, around 114,000 smokers in the UK die from smoking related causes

• Over 80% of smokers start as teenagers

Figures from www.newash.org.uk

• Ten years after quitting smoking an ex-smoker's risk of lung cancer is reduced by 30 to

50% compared with that of a continuing smoker

• Smokers who stop before the age of 35 have a life expectancy not significantly different

from that of a non-smoker

• A smoker who gives up a 20-a-day habit will save £36 a week equating to £1872 a year

Figures from www.nosmokingday.org.uk

No Smoking