Smokers in Huddersfield are among the worst for quitting the habit.
Data from Public Health England shows that in 2014/15 there were 1,173 people from Kirklees who managed to give up tobacco using NHS Stop Smoking services after four weeks.
This worked out at 1,881 successful quitters for every 100,000 smokers in Kirklees – just 2%.
‘Successfully quitting’ is defined as reporting back four weeks after giving up and having not touched a cigarette for at least two weeks.
Kirklees scored much lower than the average for England which was 2,829 for every 100,000 smokers.
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Calderdale fared a little better with 2,746 people per 100,000 smokers – approximately 3% – successfully ditching the fags.
The number of people using the NHS Stop Smoking services has been declining in recent years. It is thought this may be due to smokers turning to e-cigarettes to wean themselves off tobacco.
By measuring the level of carbon monoxide in the bloodstream, health practitioners can verify whether someone is telling the truth when claiming they have given up.
Some 58% of people who said they had given up smoking in Kirklees were able to have their results validated using this test.
A spokesperson for Kirklees Council’s public health department said that local stop smoking services ‘continue to achieve good success rates’.
“Smoking rates in Kirklees have been reducing steadily over recent years, but tobacco continues to be a significant cause of ill health and inequality.
“In common with many areas numbers of people using NHS services to quit in Kirklees has been declining over the last two years.
“This coincides with the large increase in people using e-cigarettes bought on the high street to help them reduce the harm from their nicotine addiction and reduce or quit smoking
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“The local NHS stop smoking services continue to achieve good success rates with smokers who use their services, and all of the those included in the Public Health England statistics have been validated by measuring the carbon monoxide in their blood.
“Kirklees NHS stop smoking service locally known as Yorkshire Smokefree Kirklees provides access to medication and behavioural support to strengthen the smoker’s motivation to not smoke. They can advise on ways on avoiding, escaping from or minimising urges to smoke with simple practical strategies.
“The people using Yorkshire Smokefree Kirklees are often (people) who find it most difficult to give up, yet the service still has a high success rate. The Yorkshire and the Humber region along with the South East reported the highest proportion of successful quitters (56%).”
