Quitting smoking

If you are going to stop smoking, now is a very good time to do it.

This is because:

• Smoking harms your immune system, leaving you less protected against infections like coronavirus. 
• Smokers infected with coronavirus are more likely than non-smokers to develop pneumonia. 
• Smoking inside at home around other people could raise their risks from coronavirus, alongside the other harms it causes.  Stopping smoking protects the people around you too.

The good news is that even during this time, there is still support available to stop smoking.  

There are a number of pharmacies across North Tyneside that can help.  Through telephone support, trained stop smoking advisors can help you come up with a tailored plan to stop smoking.  They can also arrange access to discounted or free medications to help you to quit. 

To find out where to call for telephone support to stop smoking, please see the list below. 

If you would like to find out more the stop smoking support that pharmacies offer please call us on 0191 643 7171.

This line is open Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5.00pm

Every year about 78,000 people in the UK die from smoking.  For every death caused by smoking, around 20 smokers are suffering from a smoking related disease. It is the number one cause of preventable death and illness in the country. About half of all lifelong smokers will die early, losing 10 years of life on average. The earlier you quit the less life you lose.

According to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH, 2015), an estimated 207,000 children in the UK start smoking each year. About two thirds of adult smokers report that they took up smoking before the age of 18.

The younger a person starts smoking, the greater the harm is likely to be. Child and adolescent smoking causes serious risks to health both in the short and long term. Children who smoke are more susceptible to coughs and increased phlegm, wheeziness and shortness of breath than those who do not smoke.

Smoking impairs lung growth and may lead to an increased risk of chronic obstructive lung disease later in life. The earlier children become regular smokers and keep smoking as adults, the greater the risk of developing lung cancer or heart disease.

Nearly two thirds of pupils report being exposed to secondhand smoke. Bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and sudden infant death syndrome (cot death) are more common in infants and children who have one or two smoking parents.

Around one in six of all deaths of adults aged 35 and over in England are estimated to be caused by smoking.

Most smoking-related deaths are from one of three types of disease: lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) and coronary heart disease.

Stopping smoking can:

• help you breathe more easily
• give you more energy
• relieve stress and anxiety
• leave more money for you and your family
• improve sense of smell and taste.
• improved fertility
• give younger looking skin
• give whiter teeth and fresher breath
• help you live longer.
• get healthier for the sake of your loved ones

E-cigarettes allow you to inhale nicotine through vapour rather than smoke. This vapour doesn't contain tar or carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful elements in tobacco smoke. Using an e-cigarette isn't completely risk-free, but it carries a small fraction of the risk of smoking and can help you quit.

E-cigarettes can also be used together with support from local stop smoking services.

• COVID-19: advice for smokers and vapers
• Smokefree
• Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
• Smoke Free Families