STOPTOBER IS BACK

Posted 30th September 2016

Stoptober is back for a fifth year to encourage the nation's remaining 7 million smokers to quit together this October.

Smokers across the country are being urged to take part in Stoptober (the mass quitting challenge from Public Health England (PHE) starting on 1 October) and join nearly 15 million people who have already quit.

Last year, out of the 2.5 million smokers who made a quit attempt, 500,000 people (20%) were successful; the highest recorded success rate and up from just 13.6% 6 years ago.

This increase in successful stop smoking attempts reflects the high number of people using quitting aids. In 2015, just over a million people (1,027,000) used an e-cigarette in a quit attempt while around 700,000 used a licensed nicotine replacement product such as patches or gum. In addition, over 350,000 people used their local stop smoking service in 2015 to 2016.

Alongside this, according to the latest data from Nielsen, the number of cigarettes sold in England and Wales has dropped by 20% in the last 2 years.

The smoking rate in England has also fallen to below 17% for the first time.

You can find more information here.

Our Stance

As a leading cancer care provider we aim to set an exemplary health role nationally and internationally. The Trust recognises that it has a legal obligation under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to provide and maintain a safe working environment for all its employees and volunteers. In addition, the Trust is required to comply with Smoke Free legislation.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is a NO SMOKING site. Smoking or Vaporising is not permitted on-site, in Trust vehicles or on any external Trust premises.

We ask all staff, patients and visitors to help keep the hospital grounds smoke free.

We have visible notices across the site and we don’t offer designated smoking areas as this would not be consistent with our commitment.

As part of Stoptober, we will have a stand in the main entrance encouraging people to go smoke free and signposting them to available support. We hope that activity like this will support more people to go smoke free in the future.