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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 25/5/06
PRESS RELEASE
Roll-up, roll-up – time to stop smoking!
To mark this year’s World No Tobacco Day (Wednesday 31st March), smokers in Warwickshire are being told there’s no such thing as a safer smoke. The main message of this campaign is that tobacco chewed or smoked in roll-ups, pipes and cigars is also deadly and is not the safer alternative some smokers imagine.
World No Tobacco Day is a global opportunity to tackle the death and disease caused by smoking every year. In Warwickshire, smoking causes over 1000 deaths, with many more of our residents developing diseases from breathing other people’s tobacco smoke.
Smoking cigars, pipes and roll-ups carries similar risks as smoking cigarettes, including heart disease, lung disease and several types of cancer. Pipe smokers, for example, have five times the risk of lung cancer, four times the risk of throat cancer and three times the risk of lung disease compared with non-smokers. Roll-ups (rolling cigarettes with tobacco papers without a filter), tend to be smoked right to the end, where a lot of cancer-causing tar gathers, and contains more additives than cigarettes. Chewing tobacco leads to a higher risk of mouth and throat cancers.
Denise Milnes from Smoke Free Warwickshire said "We are concerned that often smokers will switch to pipes, cigars, roll-ups or chewing tobacco believing that they are a safer alternative to smoking cigarettes. All tobacco use carries risks of deadly diseases. We know that smokers often feel that chewing tobacco, rolling their own cigarettes or smoking cigars or pipes is safer but their risk of becoming ill and dying from their habit remains terrifyingly high. Our local Stop Smoking Service can quadruple a smoker’s chances of quitting for good, regardless of how they use tobacco, reducing the risks as soon as the last pipe, cigar or roll-up is smoked. "
Warwickshire Stop Smoking Service operates through doctor’s surgeries and pharmacies across the county to offer support and advice to smokers as well as products that can double a smoker’s chances of stopping successfully.
For free local help and information on stopping smoking, phone the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0 169.
Ends. 25/5/06
ContactsDenise Milnes 07831 677 574
Notes to Editors For more information on tobacco use, please visit www.ash.org.uk Smoke Free Warwickshire is a multi-agency alliance committed to providing smoke free air, helping smokers to stop and promoting a tobacco free society. For More Information Contact:
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