On the first anniversary of its launch, Action on Smoking and Health Wales’ Youth Project The Filter has launched its first mobile application, Distractor. The app can be downloaded for free, and provides a creative distraction to help young people manage their tobacco cravings, alongside in-app access to The Filter’s information website and support service.
Young people are invited to beat their cravings with the app’s primary function – the distractor. Users are given a ‘theme’ or prompt to create an image and a three-minute countdown timer. The aim is to provide young people with a distraction long enough for their tobacco craving to pass.
The app will be launched on Friday 10th January, the anniversary of the launch of Filter project itself, which aims to reduce the number of children who start smoking each year in Wales. The Filter is funded by the Big Lottery Fund to provide support and quit smoking advice to young people aged 11-25, and is the only service of its kind in Wales.
In its first year, the project team has worked with youth groups, pupil referral units, schools, colleges and universities across Wales to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking. The Filter has also brought the Cut Films Awards to Wales and hosted Filter the Future, Wales’ first ever youth summit on tobacco and smoking health.
“We’re really excited about sharing The Distractor app with young people across the country. It takes about 3 minutes for a tobacco craving to pass, and the best way to manage these cravings is with distraction. The app will provide a fun and engaging distraction, alongside high-quality information and advice about the dangers of smoking.”
“Around 14,500 11-15 year olds try smoking every year in Wales. Research has also shown that around 15% of 15 year old girls and 9% of 15 year old boys regularly smoke (HBSC 2010) and we are working hard to get these figures down. The app marks the beginning of the next phase for The Filter, and we are looking forward to working with even more young people in 2014 and giving them the confidence to say ‘no’ to tobacco.
With its creative side, and the ability to share images and pictures with friends, the app will appeal to both smokers and non-smokers. To create images, there is a full colour palette, paintbrush tools, stickers and the option to add a photograph using the phone’s camera. When the three minutes is up, the image can be saved or shared across a range of social networks, and uploaded to the app’s gallery for all users to view. A fact about smoking is also displayed after each three-minute cycle.
Alongside the distractor, The Filter’s information website can be accessed directly from the application. The website offers help and advice, including how to quit smoking, and the facts about smoking and tobacco.
Access to The Filter’s instant message advice service is also built in to the app and is available for young people to ask a question or chat with an expert about the best way to stop smoking. The advice service is available on weekdays from 3pm – 8pm.
The app is fully bilingual and is available for both Android and Apple (iPhone/iPod) devices. The app can be downloaded free from Google Play and the Apple App Store.
More information is available on The Filter website: www.thefilterwales.org/distractor and users are invited to share their images and reviews of the app with the hash tag #distractor.
Primary school children joined forces with members of the Welsh rugby squad today to call on people to Quit for Wales as part of a major campaign to reduce smoking rates in Wales and save lives.
Members of the squad took time out from training ahead of Friday night’s international against Tonga at the Millennium Stadium to support ASH Wales’s Quit for Wales campaign which aims to get smokers across Wales to try a quit attempt and share their reasons why, to inspire others.
The campaign will also highlight the need for more investment in quit smoking services in Wales for vulnerable groups such as young people, pregnant women, and those with mental health difficulties to ensure everyone gets the right support.
The children, from Barry Island Primary school in the Vale of Glamorgan, have recently designed their own no smoking sign for their local playground and the perimeter around their school.
Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Roger Lewis said: “We’re delighted to give our backing to ASH Wales and the Quit for Wales campaign. We fully support their efforts to help people give up smoking and we want everyone in Wales to have the help and support to quit.
“Smoking is a deadly addiction that kills thousands of people a year in Wales and we applaud each and every person who is trying to give up, whether it’s for their health or their family’s. We want to see a healthy and active Wales where every single person can reach their full potential and for our children to enjoy a smoke-free future. Join the Quit for Wales campaign and share your reason for quitting atquitforwales.org”
Ex-smoker Howard Hughes from Ystrad Mynach will appear alongside smokers and ex-smokers in ASH Wales’s short campaign film which will be shown ahead of the Wales v Australia international on November 30th.
Howard said: “It’s not easy to quit but I’ve joined the Quit for Wales campaign because I’m hoping my story will encourage others to try giving up. I’m so excited to be in ASH Wales’s campaign film and for it to go out in the Millennium Stadium is a fantastic opportunity to reach so many people.
“I smoked from about 17 until I was 35 and was on 20 a day at the end,” said Howard. “I had tried a number of times to quit, succeeding from a few days to 6 months at one stage. As a nurse, I knew all the risks, I gave stop-smoking advice, but still couldn’t give up.”
“I started noticing pins and needles in my fingers when smoking more heavily and was aware of the peripheral neuropathy that can result from small vessel damage – this was my cue, so I went cold-turkey and managed to do it.
“If I could only give one piece of advice it would be this – everyone I talk to who re-starts smoking has a good excuse. Whenever I was craving, I’d find myself looking for an excuse; something to blame. There are no excuses that warrant re-starting, it’s just another way of kidding yourself.”
Elen de Lacy, chief executive of ASH Wales said: “It’s fantastic to get the support of the Welsh Rugby Union for our Quit for Wales campaign and we hope that their support will inspire some of Wales’s half a million smokers to make a quit attempt. Smoking is killing more than 5,000 people every year in Wales and we need to give people every opportunity to help them give up. This campaign is all about getting people to support each other and to inspire others by sharing their quit stories and we’re urging everyone to make their pledge on quitforwales.org or on social media using the hashtag #quitforwales
Research by public health charity Action on Smoking and Health in Wales has revealed that smoking is costing Welsh businesses an estimated £88.4m a year, putting added pressure on already cash-strapped companies.
The figure includes loss of productivity through smoking breaks; loss of workforce through excess sickness absence due to smoking-related illness; and damage to premises through smoking-related fires, all of which are having a significant impact on Welsh businesses.
Smoking breaks alone are estimated to cost Welsh businesses £39.5m a year.
The estimated cost of excess sickness absence is £48m a year while the estimated cost of commercial fires started accidentally by smokers’ materials in Wales is £930,000 a year.
The report “The Economic Cost of Smoking to Businesses in Wales”, is published on the first day of ASH Wales’s annual international conference in Cardiff, which will host experts from all over the world including the USA, India, the Isle of Man and the UK who will share cutting edge research on smoking prevalence and cessation initiatives.
At the conference ASH Wales will showcase its ‘Businesses for a Smoke-free Wales’ project which has involved working with 10 Welsh companies to help managers implement or develop existing smoke-free policies, as well as provide advice and support to employees.
The 12-month pilot project, which ASH Wales hopes to build on in the coming year due to demand, also offers direct fast track links to work-based quit smoking support services and opportunities to network with other businesses across Wales who are interested in developing smoke-free initiatives.
John Bennett, Business Development Manager at ASH Wales said:
“Helping staff to quit smoking not only benefits their health and their families’ health but can help businesses make significant savings.
“Businesses are beginning to realise the impact of smoking on their bottom line and want to do something about it. Businesses are coming to us from all over Wales asking for support to help their staff quit. As part of the project we spend time with the management to assess the impact that smoking is having as well as work with employees providing information, advice and signposting to other support they may need.”
OP chocolates in Merthyr Tydfil, which has nearly 300 staff, went smokefree on No Smoking Day on March 14th this year with the support of ASH Wales. Staff are now working together to form a “quit group” to support each other to give up.
Chief Executive of ASH Wales Elen de Lacy said:
“The figures in our report are not surprising but should be a wake-up call to everyone who doubts the impact that smoking still has in our communities, not only on our health but on our economy.
“Businesses need to realise the impact that smoking is having on their profit margins. Putting in place no –smoking policies and providing support to staff members to help them quit would not only improve the health of employees, but provide an economic benefit as well.
“Times are tough for businesses but if they were to think about providing on-site stop smoking support and develop a smoking cessation policy in collaboration with staff, it could make a significant difference.
“We also urgently need to ensure quit smoking services are accessible, equitable and offer a broad range of services across Wales if we are to have any chance of meeting the Welsh Government’s aim of reducing adult smoking prevalence to 16%. Long term we also need to be doing all we can to ensure fewer young people take up smoking through leadership and education.”
A new report published by ASH Wales ahead of ‘Stoptober’ reveals that smoking costs the economy in Wales £790.66m a year, putting increasing pressure on businesses and the health service.
The costs of smoking to the Welsh economy include:
£302 million spent on healthcare costs
£288 million lost to productivity through premature death
£49.5 million lost through excess sickness absence
£41 million lost to businesses through smoking breaks,
£25.8m spent clearing up smoking-related litter
£45.4 million lost through premature death due to second hand smoke exposure
The report also reveals that the cost of smoking to the economy as a whole is £145m higher than the amount generated by tobacco in tax every year, dispelling the myth that smoking benefits the economy.
Smoking continues to be the greatest single cause of avoidable mortality in Wales. The Public Health Wales Observatory estimates that each year there are 5,450 deaths from smoking related illnesses. Smoking also is associated with a wide variety of diseases that can result in admission to hospital.
The Economic Cost of Smoking to Wales will be published at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay on Wednesday September 25th with ASH Wales and members of the Wales Tobacco Control Alliance calling for more flexible support, in a range of locations to help people quit smoking.
Evidence shows that 70% of adult smokers in Wales want to stop smoking and that 38% had tried to quit in the last year. To reduce the smoking rate for adults to 16% by 2020 the Welsh Government has stated that 5% of Welsh smokers should be accessing cessation services each year, amounting to almost 30,000 smokers each year.
ASH Wales and the WTCA say this is challenging, but can be achieved if cessation services are “accessible, equitable and broad” and that more support, offered by a range of providers is made available in places such as:
workplaces
local pubs and social clubs
job centres
libraries
mobile quit smoking units
Elen de Lacy, Chief Executive of ASH Wales said: “The evidence on both the costs to the economy and to public health of smoking is stark and they are dragging Wales down. “We know that the vast majority of people who smoke want to quit, but we need more investment in a wider range of services that suit people’s needs. If we don’t invest the resources needed we will struggle to reduce smoking rates from 23% to 16% in Wales by 2020 and the burden on the economy will continue to increase. We have to provide more flexible timings and settings for people to access quit services to ensure they get support when and where they want it. We need to start taking quit support out into the community and offer more sessions in workplaces, job centres, community centres and local pubs. Quit smoking interventions need to be part of a comprehensive package to tackle stagnant smoking rates in Wales. We also need to de-normalise smoking for young people to stop them smoking in the first place by banning the glossy packaging that makes cigarettes look like fashion accessories and legislate for a ban on smoking in cars carrying children.”
Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the report, said: “We know that smoking is deadly for people but it’s clear it’s deadly for the economy, too. The day Wales and the rest of the UK become smoke free cannot come soon enough. The Welsh Government’s continuing efforts to reduce smoking must be applauded but we need even more work if we want to reduce the terrific burden and appalling misery smoking is placing on our communities right across Wales. Services to help people to kick the habit must be accessible to all and there must be further efforts to stop future generations from starting to smoke, including the introduction of standardised cigarette packs.”
Kate Alley, Cancer Research UK’s tobacco policy manager, said: “The common misconception that tax raised from tobacco outweighs the cost of smoking to society simply isn’t true as shown by this report from ASH Wales. Smoking kills 100,000 people in the UK – 5,450 of whom are in Wales. That debt cannot be repaid, which is why more support is needed for the 70 per cent of adults who want to quit.
It’s essential to make stop smoking services accessible, properly funded and within reach of people who need them. Eight in 10 smokers start before the age of 19, so we must act to stop children from taking up the habit. We are pleased that Mark Drakeford has pledged to investigate whether Wales can legislate on standardised packaging of tobacco products, which will give children one less reason to start smoking.”
BMA Cymru Wales Senior Public Affairs Officer John Jenkins said:
“Not only does smoking devastate our health, with thousands of adult deaths every year and thousands of others affected by smoking-related illness, it also has a considerable negative impact on the Welsh economy as these statistics show.
Taking into account premature death, costs of smoking-related fires in commercial properties, clearing smoking-related litter, the costs of treating disease caused by passive smoking or the full range of medical conditions associated with smoking, dropped productivity and absenteeism, government revenue gained does not go anywhere near covering these costs. We therefore need to be tougher on the tobacco industry, using the strongest possible measures to control the sale of tobacco. We also need to increase the duty on tobacco, holding tobacco companies to account and requiring greater transparency, whilst continuing to fund prevention and cessation services to help smokers quit and stop young people from smoking.”
Martin Semple, Interim Director of the Royal College of Nursing in Wales, said: “It is evident that there are challenges in reducing the number of people still smoking in Wales which is placing an unnecessary burden ? one that is unsustainable in the long term ? on the NHS. Smoking causes more preventable deaths than anything else. Every day nurses working across a wide spectrum of health see the serious health consequences of tobacco, and the RCN has consistently campaigned for initiatives to reduce the number of people who smoke. However, smoking remains the major cause of premature death and disease. Crucially, we now need more robust ideas to stop people smoking in the first place. We support and promote the importance of implementing comprehensive local tobacco control programmes to achieve improvements in public health.”
Dr Alan Rees, RCP vice president for Wales said:
“We know that smoking is still the largest avoidable cause of premature death and disability in Wales. Across the UK, there are around 10 million smokers, of whom half will die prematurely as a result of their smoking, unless they quit. Smoking also remains a massive drain on economic resources, costing the Welsh NHS around £302 million every year. As doctors, every day we see the terrible long-term effect smoking has on our patients. That’s why we believe that more needs to be done to help people stop smoking as well as to protect children from passive smoking. For example, we continue to call for the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products.”
A company based in Wales that is taking quit smoking support seriously is GoCompare. Kath Denton, Head of Organisational Development at GoCompare said: “A smoking cessation group was one of the original health and wellbeing initiatives we set up and we continue to recognise the difficulties that our staff members face in trying to stop smoking. To help them we provide free non-smoking resources for staff such as patches, gum, information packs, signposting and a free copy of Allen Carr’s Stop Smoking book. In addition, two members of staff (both ex-smokers) attended brief intervention for smoking cessation training in May 2013. This means they are now in a position to really be able to help staff who want to give up smoking by talking them through the various models and techniques available to smokers and refer them to ‘Stop Smoking Wales’ where possible. We also encourage ex-smokers to buddy up with those who are trying to quit, to increase their chances of success and provide an understanding ear when they need it most. We also participate in National No Smoking Days and promote this actively within the company.”
Action on Smoking and Health in Wales (ASH Wales) has welcomed the announcement by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) that e-cigarettes sold in the UK are to be regulated by the MHRA.
Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health in Wales Elen de Lacy said, “We welcome the MHRA’s decision to regulate e-cigarettes as it is vital to ensure their safety and efficacy. Licensing them will allow adult smokers to continue to be able to access them to help them cut down or quit smoking tobacco, but will ensure that they cannot be marketed at children or non-smokers.”
Swansea have taken the bold step of banning smoking in their playgrounds to protect children from the harm of second hand smoke and the perception that smoking is a harmless activity.
The official launch will take place on Friday 6th June, 2.30pm at The Phoenix Centre Playground, Powys Avenue, Townhill with school children who have helped campaign for smokefree play areas and designed their own signs. The launch will coincide with Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot who are set to launch on the 14th and have been working on this initiative together.
The new sign which will be displayed at play areas around Swansea.
A survey by Yougov in 2013 for ASH Wales revealed that 77% of Welsh adults now believe that smoking should be banned in areas where children play. Currently 11 out of 22 local authorities have smokefree playgrounds in their area – this is due to expand to 17 by the end of 2013.
Elen de Lacy, Chief Executive of ASH Wales, welcomed the launch of the smokefree playground initiative in Swansea and praised the partnership working of all the agencies involved:
“It is excellent news that playgrounds across Swansea will now be safer environments for children as a result of this decision to make play areas smoke-free. Children and young people have a right to play and meet with their friends in a clean environment, free not only from the dangers of second hand smoke but also cigarette litter. We hope that members of the public will help enforce the ban and bring about a change of attitudes towards smoking around young people. We want to see smoking banned in every play area in Wales and we urge other councils to follow their lead.”
