Stoptober is back, as more council-sites go smokefree

More of our public sites are now smokefree and we are once again supporting Stoptober and helping people to quit smoking.
 
Stoptober is a Public Health England campaign that encourages smokers to quit for the entire month of October and offers plenty of support to help them achieve their goal. This year's theme encourages smokers to 'end that bad relationship now and split up with smoking'.
 
To coincide with this year's campaign, we have made more of our buildings smokefree. This follows a successful roll-out in March at our main hubs of Bourne Hill in Salisbury, County Hall in Trowbridge, and Chippenham's Monkton Park. This next phase includes libraries, leisure centres, depots and some other council-owned sites. This means staff, public and visitors at those sites will no longer be able to smoke on those premises or in their car parks. Vaping will be permitted on-site where appropriate, as this is evidenced by Public Health England to be 95% less harmful than smoking.
 
Each site affected has clear signage to notify people of the new arrangements.
 
Laura Mayes, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Public Health, said: Stoptober is the perfect time to quit smoking as there will be plenty of other people doing exactly the same thing, and that will create a strong and positive support network.
 
We're keen to support anyone who wants to quit.  With the majority of our buildings smoke free and our team providing expert help to stop smoking, we hope many locals decide to take that important first step and give it a real go to benefit their health and their wallets.
 
Adult smoking prevalence in Wiltshire has continued to decline and the latest Public Health Outcomes Framework data shows that it is now at 12.3%. This is nearly a 5% decrease since 2013, when it was 17.2%, and is lower than the current national average of 14.4%.
 
However, smoking still remains the primary cause of preventable illness and premature deaths in the UK and is significantly associated with diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), various forms of cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke. Exposure to second-hand smoke is also known to increase the risk of these conditions and contributes to serious illnesses among children, such as asthma. Smoking is the biggest single cause of inequalities in death rates between the rich and poor, and it contributes to more than 600 premature deaths in Wiltshire per year.
 
Useful information and support can be found on our stop smoking pages.
 
Please visit the Stoptober website to sign up to Stoptober or find out more on what support is available. 
 
We recently launched our Bin the Butt campaign with smokers throughout Wiltshire being encouraged to safely extinguish their cigarettes and not drop litter. Read more about 'Bin the Butt'.

With the majority of our buildings smoke free and our team providing expert help to stop smoking, we hope many locals decide to take that important first step and give it a real go to benefit their health and their wallets.