I think one of the best side effects of the pandemic. Long-term readers here would empathise with this- I have been at the forefront of smoking cessation and advocacy efforts. It destroys the body’s immunity. In my clinical practise, we get enormous volumes of disease that makes it difficult to “save” structures even through modulation.
On average, 5.9% of surveyed smokers quit per year since 2007.Ash director Deborah Arnott said: “Over a million smokers may have succeeded in stopping smoking since Covid-19 hit Britain, but millions more have carried on smoking”.
About 7 million people in the UK in total were smokers in 2019.Ash is launching a stop-smoking campaign funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, targeting people in areas of the country with the highest rates of smoking.
Terrence Craggs, who lives in Newcastle, quit smoking after spending time in hospital on oxygen – although his coronavirus test was negative.”I could hardly breathe,” he said. “I was hunting for air all the time. [The pandemic] is more of an incentive to stay off them, even though it’s more difficult at the moment because of the stress,” he told the BBC.
Coronavirus: Smokers quit in highest numbers in a decade – BBC News
I do hope that the momentum stays strong to help people quit smoking for good.
RadOncNotes 