Success in Glasgow
Glasgow’s stop smoking provision has been lauded as the most successful across Scotland, building on reasonable advice being given out about electronic cigarettes
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by Dave Cross
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Public Health Scotland recently released data to show that the quit smoking campaign run by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde led to region to almost nine thousand successful quits.
Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Geraldine Lucas spoke about how they managed it: “The pandemic brought with it a number of challenges, not least with social distancing and the impact that had on our services. We worked quickly, adapting our services so that we could continue to provide support to people who had made the decision to quit. Our message is that even during the most difficult times, our stop smoking services are there to help support you to quit your own way.
“We know that smoking tobacco damages the lungs and airways causing a range of severe respiratory problems and right now, more than ever, we want to encourage all people who smoke to give quitting a go. We are offering telephone and video support and relaying the key message that quitting smoking is the single most important thing you can do to improve your health.”
Quit Your Way Community Services say they “will give you a warm welcome, and meet with you on a weekly basis. They will discuss the products which can help you quit – Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Champix or e-cigarettes, and give you lots of support.”
NHS Scotland says: “E-cigarettes have been available for purchase for just over a decade in Scotland. They have become increasingly popular. Based on current evidence, vaping an e-cigarette is definitely less harmful than smoking tobacco.”
But, unlike the NHS in England, it adds: “Ultimately, however we want people not to smoke or vape…we want to manage people away from vaping as well.”
While noting “there is no evidence of e-cigarettes acting as a gateway to smoking in children. Almost all children who are vaping are also smoking or have smoked,” NHS Scotland point the public to a document produced by ASH Scotland.
The document expresses relatively baseless fears that:
- Widespread and largely unregulated e-cigarette marketing could attract young people to e-cigarettes and on to nicotine addiction
- Tobacco companies are increasingly involved in e-cigarette manufacture and sale, and
- There is a potential for e-cigarettes to ‘renormalise’ smoking
This stance could prove to be troubling should Scotland diverge any further from the accepted position in England and Wales and signals the need for advocates and independent businesses to be more active in making the case for vaping with The Scottish Parliament.
Related:
ASH Scotland Wants Ecig Clampdown - https://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/news/vaping-news/2021-09-10_ash-scotland-wants-ecig-clampdown.html
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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