Bournemouth UniversityNo Smoking Day – 11 March 2015
Posted on Friday, March 6 2015
BU is proud to support national ‘No Smoking Day’ on Wednesday 11 March, which is one of the longest running and most successful stop smoking campaigns in the world.
Daily smoking rates in England have halved and are continuing to decline [GASP – health education resource]; tobacco advertising is banned; all workplaces and enclosed public places are smoke free; on 1 October 2015 legislation is being brought in to prevent smoking in cars where children (under 18) are present and there are UK-wide networks of stop smoking support groups.
www.nhs.uk/stopsmokingtreatments
Despite these huge changes in smoking culture, No Smoking Day still achieves a large health impact, with up to 1 million smokers using the day each year to make an attempt to quit. Researchers estimate that up to 1.75 million smokers have quit for good since No Smoking Days’ launch.
The theme for 2015 is ‘Proud to be a Quitter’ which features photos and testimonials from ex-smokers. Smoking is the single biggest killer of people in the UK, with over 4,000 chemicals in one cigarette, including rat poison, toilet cleaner and nail varnish remover.
There are many health benefits of quitting smoking (as well as the obvious financial benefits – the average smoker spends around £2,300 per year on tobacco!);
- A reduction in the risk of developing illness, disability or death caused by cancer, heart or lung disease (a smoking related disease kills one out of every two smokers)
- Breathing becomes easier within just 72 hours
- Improved taste and smell after 48 hours
- In 2-12 weeks circulation is improved throughout your body
- In 3-9 months lung capacity improves by up to 10%
- After 5 years, you half the chance of having a heart attack compared to when you smoked
- After 10 years, you have halved your chances of getting lung cancer, and reduced the risk of a heart attack to the same as someone who has never smoked!
As well as supporting staff and students who wish to quit smoking, it is important to remember that BU also has a duty to protect all individuals from the harmful effects of tobacco smoke. We would therefore also like to take this opportunity to remind all smokers about the No Smoking Policy and on-line resource which details the University’s No Smoking guidelines.