Smoking level in England lowest ever, says health agency

The number of people in England who smoke cigarettes has fallen to below 17 percent of the population, its lowest ever level, it was revealed Tuesday.

The southwest area of the country saw the biggest drop, with just over 15 percent of people still smoking, says Public Health England (PHE).

PHE is now hoping to persuade the remaining 7 million smokers in England to take advantage of the annual "Stoptover" campaign month in October to finally quit the so-called "deadly weed".

In last year's Stopover campaign, out of the 2.5 million smokers who made a quit attempt, 500,000 people, or 20 percent, were successful, the highest recorded success rate for the campaign.

PHE says successful stop smoking attempts reflect the high number of people using quitting aids. In 2015, just over a million people (1,027,000) used an e-cigarette in a quit attempt while around 700,000 used a licensed nicotine replacement product such as patches or gum. In addition, over 350,000 people used their local stop smoking service in 2015 to 2016.

Alongside this, the number of cigarettes sold in England and Wales has dropped by 20 percent in the last two years, said PHE.

A spokesman for the agency said Tuesday: "The smoking rate in England has also fallen to below 17 percent for the first time. The biggest decreases in smoking over the last four years can be seen in the southwest (18.7 percent to 15.5 percent) and the northeast (22 percent to 18.7 percent).

Dr. Gina Radford, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: "The best thing a smoker can do for their health is to stop smoking. The introduction of standardised packs removes the glamorous branding and brings health warnings to the fore and e-cigarettes, which many smokers find helpful for quitting, are now regulated to assure their safety and quality."

Professor Kevin Fenton, National Director of Health and Wellbeing for PHE said:" While it is amazing that there are over twice as many ex-smokers as current smokers in England there are still over 7 million people regularly lighting up."

"Alongside unhealthy diet, smoking is the biggest cause of preventable early death in England, accounting for over 78,000 deaths a year."

This year's Stoptober is the fifth and has driven almost a million quit attempts to date. It is based on research that if smokers quit for 28 days they are five times more likely to stop for good.

Although explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is credited with introducing tobacco into Britain in 1586, it is thought overseas sailors were using it before then.

By the 1940s, around two thirds of men in Britain smoked tobacco, as cigarettes, pipe tobacco or cigars. In 1974 more than half of the male population still smoked cigarettes. Endit