Burnley women urged to stub it out

Burnley women have been urged to give up the cigarettes

The figures revealed that 25.5% of women living in Burnley smoke, second only to Hastings in East Sussex, with fellow Lancashire area South Ribble having the least amount of women smokers at just 4%.Lancashire County Council has commissioned a ‘Quit Squad’ which encourages people to stop smoking, and includes support for pregnant women to quit in partnership with midwifes, health visitors and children’s centres.County Coun. Shaun Turner, Lancashire County Council’s cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “We know how difficult it is to stop smoking, but we’re here to help.“If you want to stop, you should contact our Quit Squad service. Friendly staff will give you the support you need to quit and offer nicotine replacement therapy to help you beat the cravings.“Current figures show that 16% of Lancashire’s population smokes, which is just above the national average. Rates in the county are falling.“However, we are aware of tobacco use hotspots such as Burnley and our targeted work with communities will help us address them. Our aim is to cut smoking rates in Lancashire to 12% or less by 2022.”The county council is also running a smokefree homes initiative to help protect people from the effects of second-hand smoke.The figures, which came from ‘Adult Smoking Habits in the UK: 2016’ were then further investigated by Vapourcore.com which analysed the report provided by the Office for National Statistics and Public Health England.Charles Bloom, managing director of Vapourcore.com, said: “We found the top 10 local authorities in England for the highest male smoking rates, differ completely to the top 10 for the highest female smoking rates. This suggests it isn’t necessarily triggered by any one factor.”

The figures can be viewed here www.vapourcore.com