Smoking ban: one year on

5:10pm Wednesday 2nd July 2008

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TUESDAY saw the first anniversary of the smoking ban and the effects on health are becoming apparent.

Already 59 per cent of smokers who have tried to quit have been successful within four weeks, which means 599 fewer people are smoking in Warrington.

The ban meant that smoking in almost all public places became illegal.

“The overall level of support is incredibly high with 98 per cent compliance across the north west and 79,000 inspections being done,” said Dr Janet Atherton, the chairman of Smoke Free North West.

“It is probably one of the most popular pieces of legislation that has ever been brought in,” she said.

“It came in at a time at which people were willing to support it. Five years ago it wouldn’t have had anything like the same level of support,” she said.

Smoking levels in the north west are the highest in England so the ban has made a real difference, she said, with 43 per cent of smokers in the region trying to quit in the past year.

It is too soon to see any trends in health benefits but some national research has shown improvements, said Dr Steve Owen, a respiratory physician at Warrington Hospital.

“Research by the British Lung Foundation that shows that more than half of 1,000 people surveyed with lung conditions said they had suffered fewer attacks of breathlessness from exposure to smoke in pubs and restaurants, and more than a third said it had helped keep them out of hospital.

“I suspect asthma is the main condition alluded to in this survey but as a hospital we now get relatively few acute asthma admissions as the condition is generally well controlled,” he said.

“It is very encouraging that so many people have used the ban as a way of giving up and I think that over a period of several years we will see some more positive trends emerge, but it is still early days at the moment in terms of the longer-term effects of stopping smoking,” said Dr Owen.

Since the ban came into force on July 1, 2007, there have been no fines or prosecutions in Warrington.

The council’s trading standards department investigated 1,495 places and found a compliance rate of 97 per cent.

If you want to stop smoking you can contact the smoking cessation service on 843713.