Stop Smoking Services

Smokefree Lancashire provide free support, both face-to-face and telephone/online. They can also offer nicotine replacement products.

• Call freephone: 0808 196 2638
• Fill out their online form: smokefreelancashire.org.uk/referrals

Local pharmacies offer stop smoking services and free nicotine replacement products.

Visit Better Health (www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/find-your-local-stop-smoking-service/)

Local pharmacies across South Cumbria offer stop smoking services and free nicotine replacement products.

• Visit Better Health (www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/find-your-local-stop-smoking-service/)

Westmorland and Furness Health and Wellbeing Service can help you find the right support.

• Visit the Westmorland and Furness Health and Wellbeing Service website to find out about drop-ins, and to contact them online.

They also offer an innovative, nicotine-free approach called Allen Carr’s Easyway.

Check availability and book through the Allen Carr website: Allen Carr's Easyway

Anyone can get online help and find local services by visiting the NHS Quit Smoking resources.

There are also free, clinically reviewed apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store

You can search for your local stop smoking service on NHS Better Health.

• Nicotine vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking. It's also one of the most effective tools for quitting smoking.
• To be clear, vaping isn’t harm free. If you don’t smoke, you shouldn’t vape. However, if you do smoke and can’t quit using other methods, vaping significantly reduces your risk.
• You become addicted to nicotine in cigarettes, but it is the toxins from burning tobacco in the same cigarettes that causes most of the harm. Vaping gives you the nicotine without the huge number of other chemicals. It doesn’t deal with the addiction, but it does reduce the risk.
• There is currently no good evidence to suggest that second hand (passive) vaping has major health risks to those around you, unlike passive smoking. This is because there chemicals aren’t released into the environment in the same way that the burning end of a cigarette does. People around you are safer if you vape than smoke.
• There are now manufacturing standards for vaping. Look for a ‘CE’ or ‘UKCA’ mark to avoid using illegal vapes that might have higher levels of chemicals or banned substances in them.

Whilst vaping can be a positive step for smokers, it mustn’t become a way that non-smokers become addicted to nicotine. It is particularly important that children and young people understanding vaping is addictive and does have harms, and are protected from the targeted use of advertising and seductive flavours to lure them in.

If you do not smoke, you should not vape.

You can learn more about vaping here.

• Never smoke inside, even near an open window. Many of the dangerous chemicals released by burning tobacco come off the tip of the cigarette. Even near an open window, these toxins blow into the room. Set up an outside area and keep an old coat, shoes and umbrella where you need them to go out.
• Get rid of indoor ashtrays. Keep your smoking paraphernalia by your exit door, and don’t leave any spaces inside the house setup for smoking.
• Ask visitors to smoke outside – Keep your home safe for everyone. Ask your friends and family to support you. The chemicals from smoke settle on fabrics and get mixed in with house dust, so keep your home smokefree even when children aren’t around.
• Wash your hands – Chemicals get deposited on your hands from the cigarette, so wash them as soon as you come back inside.
• Remember, it is now against the law to smoke in a vehicle when a child under 18 is present, so make your car smokefree too.

• Try vaping. It is the nicotine in cigarettes that makes you addicted and gives you the feelings that make you want another one. However, it is the burning tobacco in cigarettes that does most of the damage. Vaping gives you the nicotine without the chemicals from burning tobacco. So, whilst vaping is still addictive and not risk free, it is much less harmful than smoking.
• Avoid illegal cigarettes. Cigarettes sold illegally haven’t necessarily been made to the same safety standards, meaning you could be exposed to higher levels of chemicals, or banned chemicals that have been swapped in to the product.
• Use nicotine gum or patches – These help you smoke less, and you may be able to space out your cigarettes or avoid smoking when others are present.

The tobacco industry spends millions to get people addicted to smoking. They create products that keep you hooked, and they target young people and poorer communities the most. Accepting addiction is about handing your choices over to them.

Tobacco companies target you through;

• Addictive products – Cigarettes are designed to keep you smoking, and that addiction keeps their customers coming back for more, even when it is harming their health.
• False or subtle advertising – The UK has strict advertising rules, but the global internet means you’ll still see adverts that can let them hide the full story. Push promotions to retailers, tobacco packaging and visibility of famous people and influencers smoking can also nudge you towards buying their products.
• Targeting young people – They want to get people addicted early so they become customers for life. Many start smoking saying it is a lifestyle choice that they will stop when it gets serious, but later find they can’t.
• High profit industry – Tobacco company profit margins can be as much as 71% in the UK, and global tobacco companies make more money that many other big industries. Creating nicotine addiction means they can rely on thousands of pounds of your cash benefitting them every year.

When you quit, you are fighting back against a system that profits from making us sick.