AN AWARENESS campaign designed to dispel a common myth that smoking is a way to relieve stress is hitting Hastings in the new year.
Representatives of South East Smokefree Alliance (SESA) will be at Priory Meadow Shopping Centre on Tuesday, January 6, to talk to shoppers about wellbeing, and the link between quitting smoking and feeling better.
The campaign is built on growing evidence that stopping smoking doesn’t just improve physical health but can also make people happier.
Darrell Gale, Director of Public Health at East Sussex County Council, said: “There is a misconception that smoking helps to relieve stress, but nicotine creates a temporary feeling of calm by relieving withdrawal symptoms, trapping smokers in a cycle of feeling the need to smoke to ease irritability and anxiety.
“The campaign by SESA, of which the county council is a member, will help to put the record straight and hopefully encourage smokers to consider kicking the habit.”
The latest campaign forms part of SESA’s wider mission to make the south east a smokefree region by 2030. Currently, around 16 per cent of people in Hastings smoke – the third highest in the south east and the 18th highest in England. Across East Sussex more one in ten people smoke.
Dr Sarah Milne, Lead of the South East Smokefree Alliance, said: “This campaign is about hope, positivity and connection. We recognise that people have other stresses and challenges in their lives though the evidence is clear that if you are receiving support for a mental health problem or major challenge, quitting smoking can help you through this.
“Within weeks of quitting, your brain starts to heal and your mood lifts naturally. The campaign brings together partners covering a population of more than nine million people to remind us that brighter moods and calmer minds are within reach, and that quitting smoking is one of the most powerful steps you can take to feel better.”
The latest SESA activities are part of a mass campaign funded by 18 councils in the South East of England and includes TV, radio, and online adverts with positive messages for smokers on the benefits of quit smoking and they can access support services.
More information about the campaign, local stop smoking support, and to watch a series of films and animations explaining how “smoking steals our happiness” can be found at www.quittogetherlivebetter.com
The South East Smokefree Alliance (SESA) represents 18 local authorities: East Sussex, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Medway, Oxfordshire, Portsmouth, Reading, Slough, Southampton, Surrey, West Berkshire, West Sussex, Windsor and Maidenhead, and Wokingham.
There are at least 846,787 adults who smoke across the South East — 10.6 per cent of the population.
Smoking causes around 9,500 deaths each year in the region and is responsible for over 55,000 hospital admissions annually.
Smokers are 2.5 times more likely to need social care and on average need it 10 years earlier than non-smokers.
The Alliance’s goal is to make the South East smokefree by 2030 (fewer than 5 per cent of adults smoking).