More Help For Smokers

An estimated 900,000 adults smoke here in the South West. But it's claimed many of those want to quit. Now they're being offered more help to do so.

Plans have been announced to try and half the number of smokers in the country by 2020.  Here in the South West, that means hundreds of thousands of people becoming smokefree as well as a big reduction in the number of young people who take up the habit (currently 45 local teenagers every day). The newly launched South West Smokefree Strategy aims to..

1  Offer better help to smokers wanting to quit including new types of support available at times and places to suit the smoker

2  Stopping the sale of tobacco from vending machines

3  Cracking down on cheap illicit cigarettes entering the UK

4  Looking at selling cigarettes in plain packaging

5  Reviewing the smokefree law to possibly extend legislation to areas like entrances to buildings

Experts claim they are already making progress.  New figures suggest 32,000 people smoked smoking here in the South West last year thanks to NHS support.  But there's a long way to go.  Almost 35% of 16-24 year olds smoke here, making ours the worst region in the country.  And 17% of local women smoke when they're pregnant.