The Hull and East Riding Pharmacy Development Group is to launch a campaign to help smokers give up the habit for the new millennium.
The six-week campaign begins on November 15 and includes local publicity, a window poster campaign and the distribution of information packs to anyone thinking about quitting. These will be available from all pharmacies in the area.
The campaign has been planned in conjunction with the East Riding health authority health action zone, the Humberside Alliance on Tobacco (HALT), and the Hull Daily Mail, which has a circulation of 250,000 readers.
The newspaper is also running a "trash the ash" campaign, which was established as a result of the pharmacy campaign. The aim is to get 2,000 people to make telephone pledges to stop smoking. Regular articles in the newspaper are to encourage potential quitters to contact their local pharmacies for help before giving up.
"This is an excellent example of pharmacists working together with other partners to tackle the major health problems caused by smoking in our area," Mr Graham Hill (chairman of the pharmacy development group) told The Journal on November 8. "We hope that as smokers resolve to quit, they will seek help and advice from their local pharmacists."