It seems Huddersfield folk like their cigarettes too much.
According to official figures, the number of smokers in Kirklees is at its lowest ever level. But Kirklees is below average when it come to successfully ditching the fags – and local people also have a higher than average death rate from smoking-related diseases.
Local health chiefs said there was still ‘a lot of work to do’ to reduce smoking rates further.
A spokesperson for Kirklees Public Health said: “The historical impact of higher smoking rates means that the council and our partners in the North Kirklees CCG (clinical commissioning group) and Greater Huddersfield CCG still have a lot of work to do on improving outcomes for people living with smoking related ill health.
“The pressures these health problems place on services and the devastating impact they can have on people’s lives demonstrate how important it is that we continue to reduce smoking rates.”
Kirklees residents weren’t great at kicking the habit.
While nearly two-thirds of smokers (64%) who attempted to quit in 2015 successfully managed it, more than a third (36%) relapsed.
This was worse than the Yorkshire average (73%) for successful quitters and the England average (71%).
Smoking rates in Kirklees reached a record low last year.
Just one in six people (16.4%) in Kirklees were smokers last year, according to figures from Public Health England.
This is better than the Yorkshire average (18.6%) and considerably better than in Barnsley and Bradford where more than one in five smoked. And it was slightly better than the average for England (16.9%).
But Kirklees has a higher than average rate of smoking related deaths with 293.7 deaths per 100,000 between 2012 and 2014.
The England average is 274.8 per thousand.
And Calderdale smokers were better than average at quitting – 74% managed to successfully stop.
But despite smoking levels in the borough being at their lowest ever, Calderdale had a higher than average proportion of smokers (18.7%).
And it had a higher than average smoking-related death rate (319.3 per 100,000) between 2012 to 2014.
Clr Faisal Shoukat, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Health, said: “Over the past few years smoking prevalence in Calderdale has fallen. We continue to do lots of innovative work to tackle smoking, together with the NHS, schools and other organisations.
“We were the first council in West Yorkshire to sign up to the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control, which shows our commitment to reducing smoking rates and highlighting the risk to health from tobacco.
“We have also signed up to Breathe 2025 to inspire a smoke-free generation, where children are born and raised in a place where smoking isn’t seen as the norm.”
For help quitting visit: http://kirklees.yorkshiresmokefree.nhs.uk or http://calderdale.yorkshiresmokefree.nhs.uk .
