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Help to stop smoking on menu at Blaby cafes

06 March 2010

Stop smoking is on the menu
Stop smoking information on the menu
(Image: Enderby EYE)

There will be a free extra option on the lunchtime menu at cafes on two Blaby industrial estates in the run-up to No Smoking Day (10 March) - the offer of a helping hand to quit.

Leicestershire County and Rutland Community Health Services health improvement and stop smoking specialists are teaming up with health promotion officers from Blaby District Council to highlight free support for local workers who want to commit to quit this No Smoking Day.

Staff will be on hand with CO monitors and information displays during busy lunchtime sessions at café apple on the Cambridge Road Industrial Estate on Monday 8th March and at Whetstone Café on the Enderby Road Industrial Estate on Tuesday 9th March. They will be offering information, advice and carbon monoxide tests to customers who are keen to know more about improving their health and wellbeing.

Meanwhile the council’s environmental health officers will launch a campaign on No Smoking Day aimed a helping the district’s taxi and minicab drivers to kick the habit.

Victoria Smith, health promotion officer at Blaby District Council, said:

"We are very keen to talk to routine and manual workers from the area because we know that this is the group with the highest smoking rates."

Information packs are being distributed to around 40 taxi firms and drivers are being invited to fill in a questionnaire aimed at detailing their smoking habits.

Organisers hope the results will help smoking cessation specialists to provide them with the right kind of help to quit.

If enough drivers sign up for support sessions, they hope to launch a taxi drivers’ quitting challenge.

Student environmental health officer Judith Cox-Rogers, who is organising the taxi rank campaign, explained: “With the questionnaire results, we might be ale to identify similar smoking habits among taxi drivers that will help us devise techniques and tips to support drivers when they are most vulnerable to having a cigarette.

Muj Rahmen, community health service health improvement specialist, said: “The risks of smoking include heart and lung disease and more than 50 types of cancer. Quitting is the single biggest way a smoker can dramatically improve their chances of extending their lives."

NHS research for 2008-09 showed that more than a fifth of over 16s in Blaby are smokers. The stop smoking service provides a free and confidential service designed to help give quitters the information, advice and treatments they need, to help them kick the habit. Support is offered at a whole range of community venues, including church halls, supermarkets and even the workplace. In the last 10 years the service has helped more than 38,000 people to quit.

Contact the Stop Smoking team on Tel: 0845 045 2828.

Associated links

» Leicestershire County & Rutland Community Health Services

» Blaby District Council

» No Smoking Day Campaign

 

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