Demand for stop smoking support may have peaked
Expertise in helping people give up smoking needs to be shared worldwide |
Smokers' desire to kick the habit prompted by the ban on smoking in public places introduced in England on 1 July 2007 may have peaked, according to the results of a survey published this week.
Uptake of smoking cessation services run by community pharmacists increased
in the run up to the change in the law, the snap shot survey carried
out by researchers at the School of Pharmacy, University of London, showed.
But the enthusiasm from smokers to sign up to smoking cessation programmes
was patchy a month after the ban was brought in, they discovered, following
interviews with eight primary care trust service managers in August.
Tina Brock, a researcher at the School of Pharmacy, said there was a
danger that policy makers and the public may mistakenly believe that
the ban in England meant that the “tobacco harm pandemic” was
under control.
There was now a greater need for investment in smoking cessation services
to try and reach those hard core smokers — often from disadvantaged
groups — who have refused to use the England ban as the motivator
to giving up, she said.
The results of the survey coincided with publication of a report by the
School of Pharmacy and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP): “Curbing
the tobacco pandemic: the global role for pharmacy” (PDF 500K) which
was unveiled at the 67th
FIP congress in Beijing this week.
The report says that pharmacists have a crucial role to play in helping
to stem the “tobacco harm pandemic” and that pharmacy leaders
and regulators should ensure that the profession receives adequate funds
for running smoking cessation services.
Pharmacists also have a responsibility
to make sure they have access to smoking cessation medicines and that
they are able to give evidence-based stop-smoking advice to patients.
The report highlights that smoking rates might have dropped in the
developed world but they are on the rise in developing countries, especially
in
Asia. And smoking is still responsible for five million premature deaths
every year, it points out.
China now accounts for a third of
all smokers worldwide and it is crucial
that health professionals in developed countries share their expertise
on smoking cessation with health professionals in other countries where
smoking is increasing, the researchers say. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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