Estimates of the proportion of adults who smoke in Northamptonshire are about 28%. Corby is estimated to have the highest prevalence of smokers (34%) and South Northants the lowest (18%). There is wide variation at ward level with estimates ranging from 13% to 42% across the county. (5) About a 1,000 people die each year in Northamptonshire as a result of smoking. Smoking related death rates were 119 per 100,000 in Northamptonshire in 2002 to 2004 which is below the England average of 125 per 100,000. The equivalent death rate in Corby was 164 per 100,000 which is a significantly higher rate compared to the England average and rates in East Northants (105); Daventry (102) and South Northants (103) were significantly low. (5)
My chosen target group are adults aged 20-24. I have decided to look at this group as smoking rates have risen in adults over the past many years. Facts and figures show that smoking rates are higher amongst this group then any other, of which 33% are men and 29% are women. Also one of the main reasons is that if adults continue to waste their money on cigarettes there are very high chances of having a low income, this may them affect their children later in life by exposing them to second hand smoke. This can lead to children developing asthma and breathing problems which will then lead to the government raising taxes as more people will need professional treatment.
Facts show that almost a quarter of the population within the UK smoke, most of which are people aged 20-24, mainly female, are most likely to smoke (2). However this could be a concern for pregnant women. Evidence shows that the effects of smoking hold additional risks of spontaneous abortion or miscarriage and premature birth. There are also risks to the foetus such as: smaller infant (for gestational age), stillborn infant and said before there is also an increased chance of the child to smoke in their teens and there are also possible physical & mental long-term effects to the child.
If these children then make smoking a habit they will miss out on education as they will spend most their time outside of school, or ill in bed or even at hospital if their condition is that bad. Therefore there intellectual development will get impeded. Poor intellectual development might result to achieving little qualification and not achieving full potential. This may then lead to a low-paid job which will mean that they might live in poverty. They might have enough money to buy necessary needs such as clothing, food and shelter however may not be able to afford personal goods such as a computer or maybe even a car. They may even struggle to pay for bills such as the gas, electricity and water bills. This could then lead to emotional states such anxiety, stress and depression. Also this could lead to having a bad health and a poor diet as they will not be able to afford healthier food.
A02
Below is a diagram showing what smoking can do to your body: (3)
Smoking has no health benefits, on contrast it is a lifestyle choice associated with a wide range of health risks. Smoking can cause an individual many types of cancers, which may not develop for years. But cancers account for only about half of the deaths related to smoking. Long-term smoking is also a major cause of heart disease, cardiovascular, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke. Skin wounds take longer to heal and the immune system may be less effective in smokers compared to non-smokers. Smoking also has other effects on the body. (3)
Many people smoke all over the world, adults to children, male to female. However there are countless reasons to do so. First and most common of all, smoking is very addictive. Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of chemicals, produced by the burning of tobacco and the addictives. The smoke contains tar, which is made up of more then 4,000 chemicals that can cause dreadful illnesses and diseases. Cigarettes are naturally made up of dried leaves of tobacco plants and these are very poisonous: tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. Nicotine is what makes smoking addictive which carbon monoxide and tar can cause serious diseases. (3)
Below is a table which shows some of the poisons contained in cigarette smoke (4)
Secondly hundreds of people across the UK smoke to feel relaxed. They see it as a form to help cope with stress. Smokers may feel better however long-term it is causing a lot of damage. Other reasons why people may smoke might be peer pressure, social image, to look more confident and in control, curiosity, rite of passage, it tends to change appetite, to look good, it may run in the family, or you might just be feeling lonely or isolated. Smoking can also make you more prone to everyday complaints like colds, and make them more clear. Many people do not realise that smoking is what makes them cough, sneeze or feel short of breath when they exercise.
The newspaper ‘Guardian’ suggests that according to new research more than half the adults who smoke regularly take celebrities as their role models, due to their smoking in films. This can then encourage other people to do the same, which is one of the reasons why people smoke.
Children are particularly affected by passive smoke because their bodies are still developing. But around half of all British children are growing up in homes where at least one parent is a smoker. (4) Nearly half the children in the England live in homes where at least one person smokes. Unlike adults, young children do not have any choice about whether or not they are exposed to tobacco smoke. The most important thing a parent can do to keep their child healthy is to ensure they live in a smoke free environment.
Socioeconomic status is one of the most powerful risk factors for poor health outcomes. People from lower socioeconomic status suffer disproportionately from nearly all diseases and have higher rates of mortality than people of higher socioeconomic status. There is a strong association between cigarette smoking and socio-economic position. The prevalence of smoking varies by social class. For both men and women cigarette smoking is more common amongst manual social groups than among non-manual groups, and is lowest among higher managerial and professional classes. In 2005, 32% of men and 29% of women in routine and manual occupations smoked compared to 18% of men and 16% of women in managerial professional occupational. (1)
There is no other single avoidable factor causes such a high proportion of deaths, hospital admissions or consultations with general practitioners. This burden of ill health and early death falls disproportionately on poorer people. People in poorer social classes are more likely to die early due to a variety of reasons. Among men, premature deaths from lung cancer are five times higher among those in unskilled manual work compared with those in professional jobs.
Among low income lone parents, the poorest family group, over 70% smoke. It is estimated that over three-quarters of prisoners, many of whom come from socially deprived sections of the community, smoke. People with mental health problems are also more likely to be smokers. Smoking is very high among the many Muslims living in the UK; smoking prevalence (particularly among men) remains high. For example, in England in 2004 the overall prevalence of smoking was 40% in Bangladeshi men and 29% in Pakistani men compared with 24% among the male general population
There are not many smokers about who started smoking after the age of eighteen. In fact, the majority of smokers took up the habit in their early or mid teens. At such a young age, teenagers don't really think about the health risks of smoking and sometimes may not realise how addictive it is.
Smoking has many types of short and long-term effects. It causes many types of cancers, which may not develop for years. But cancers account for only about half of the deaths linked to smoking. Long-term, smoking leads people to develop health problems like cancer, emphysema (breakdown of lung tissue), organ damage, and heart disease. Smoking also damages the arteries. Smoking also causes many short-term effects, such as poor lung function. Because of this, smokers often suffer shortness of breath and nagging coughs. They often will tire easily during physical activity. Some other common short-term effects include less ability to smell and taste, premature aging of the skin, bad breath, and stained teeth.
Smokers often believe that there is no point in stopping smoking because the damage is already done, however, this is not the case. Below are some of the short and long term benefits that occur after the first twenty minutes of quitting tobacco. After just twenty minutes: blood pressure decreases, pulse rate drops, and temperature of hands and feet increases. After eight hours carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal, oxygen level in blood increases to normal. After twenty four hours the chance of suffering heart attack decreases. After fourty eight hours nerve ending start re-growing, and ability to smell and taste is enhanced. Two to twelve weeks later the circulation improves; walking becomes easier, and the lung function increases. At one to nine months coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and the shortness of breathe decreases. After giving up a whole year the excess risk of coronary heart disease is decreased to half that of a smoker and almost between five to fifteen years of age after quitting stroke risk is reduced to that of people who have never smoked. At a whole ten years after quitting the risk to lung cancer drops to as little as one-half that of continuing smokers, risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas also decreases, risk of ulcer decreases. And finally at fifteen years the risk of coronary heart disease is now similar to that of people who have never smoked risk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smoked. (3, 8)
Quitting the tobacco habit offers some benefits that you'll notice right away and some that will develop over time. These benefits short-term wise can also improve your day-to-day life.
- your breath smells better
- stained teeth get whiter
- bad smelling clothes and hair go away
- your yellow fingers and fingernails disappear
- food tastes better
- your sense of smell returns to normal
- Everyday activities no longer leave you out of breath (for example, climbing stairs or light housework).
Cost wise smoking is extremely expensive. This is not only concerning the actual cost of the cigarettes but also involves the extra cost to treat service users at health services due to smoking related diseases. “The annual cost of smoking to the NHS in England has soared from £1.7 billion a year in 1998 to £2.7 billion this year.” Long-term wise smoking will save smokers lots of money. The average smoker in the UK (who smokes maybe 20 cigarettes a day) will spend almost £91,520 over 40 years on their habit. However if they can quit this habit then there is a much better lifestyle that they can choose out there and they can spend their money on life essentials such as food, health care and education.
Also, if huge amounts of smokers fall ill at the same time, hospitals will be packed with people quicker therefore more hospitals will be required, which might possibly mean the whole population raising higher tax including non-smokers. Therefore cost is a very big issue as to why people should quit smoking.
Many of tobacco’s health effects can be minimised through smoking cessation. Evidence shows that those who stop smoking before they reach 30 years of age live almost as long as those who have never smoked. It is also possible to reduce the risks by reducing the frequency of smoking and by proper diet and exercise. Smoking cessation (known as quitting, or kicking the habit) is the effort to stop products. There are a range of ways to tackle with smoking. First of all getting professional help from your doctor, a nurse or a trained counsellor can help you stop smoking. The NHS also offers a smoking helpline, which smokers and their families can call for free, for expert advice.
Getting advice and encouragement from a GP, nurse or trained counsellor really helps, especially if a service user is pregnant or at high risk of an illness caused by smoking. Service users can get one-to-one advice, on the telephone or from self-help materials, such as leaflets. Nicotine replacement can also help service users give up. Products such as nicotine patches, gum, nasal spray, lozenges, tablets that you put under your tongue and sprays are all forms of this treatment.
A03
When writing up my assignments I used a lot of information to collect facts and statistics about smoking during adulthood. I gathered most of the information I found useful and interesting off websites and textbooks. The use of textbooks however wasn’t appropriate when looking at statistics as the figures weren’t very up to date therefore to find more useful data; I looked at the recent statistics by using the internet. I used these resources to broaden my understanding about smoking as a public health issue.
The sources I found most useful were the Primary Care Trust Public Health Report and two of the biggest charity websites called Ash and cancer research. (These are referenced in the bibliography at the back of the assignment). These sources are reliable as they have all been set up for smokers to quit smoking and to help both smokers as well as non smokers to gain knowledge about the cost and the health impacts of smoking.
The PCT Report shows statistics of the UK as a whole and Northamptonshire plus figures of smoking rates cross the world. This information comes from a variety of surveys and hospitals. I also used other popular websites such as the BBC health site however I didn’t find this reliable as it isn’t a single source and information has been put together from a variety of places, therefore wasn’t very helpful.
I also used an article from the newspaper ‘Guardian’ which had information about how smokers take celebrities as their role models. Other news related websites such as ‘Daily mail’ and ‘Telegraph’ were also useful when looking at articles associated with smoking and its effects. I used the public health annual report, a report which outlines the progress that has been made towards providing better health professionals in care services.
I also made use of NHS leaflets which showed the effects of smoke through passive smoking as well as on the smoker themselves. I particularly found these interesting as they had information about life threatening long term effects of smoking during adulthood and some of the short and long term benefits after the first twenty minutes of quitting smoking. Whilst looking at the socioeconomic factors to health issues I found a website about the London Health Observatory very useful. This particularly looked at poor housing conditions and how this could affect people in this state.
A04
Reducing the number of people who smoke is a key priority for the PCT as well as the government. Some of the public health strategies in relation to smoking are to help smokers give up, to reduce the number of new smokers and to protect people from second hand smoke. Public health strategies are broad plans that identify and explain the significant of public health issues within a population or community (6)
I have identified ways which this target can be achieved. The first is to sell cigarettes in a smaller quantity then which they are in the original packet made by the manufacturer. Allowing customers to buy only one packet at a time from wherever the product is being purchased no mater who or what age the customer is. However as this will make it easier for people to buy cigarettes raising the prices of tobacco will make it less affordable. If tobacco prices increase to approximately £10.90 per packet, people will find it difficult to purchase cigarettes. This then means that less people will be affected by passive smoking and the risks of health related illnesses will reduce.
A current established PCT target in 2006/07 was to help up to 970 people (16) in Northampton to quit smoking within a matter of 4 weeks. However the PCT were unable to achieve this target as the results achieved were very appauling. Only 145 (16) people managed to quit the smoking habit which was not even a quarter of the estimated target. However even though the results were very poor I believe that achieving the quitter target was extremely challenging. Evidence shows that the PCT has never met the 4-week quitter target and the target for 2007/08 still remains very challenging.
Strategies the PCT have put into place to support this target are that they have developed a comprehensive called the Northamptonshire Stop Smoking Service (NSSS) which offers a range of services designed to help people successfully stop smoking. To help achieve this they have trained nurses and GP’s to work in surgeries and pharmacies who can then give advice on how service users can give up smoking and explains ways of curing the addiction of smoking. This I believe will help cut down the amount of people who smoke as the services will provide service users with professionals who will then be able to support them and give them knowledge and understanding about the consequences of smoking. However this method might not work with all smokers as it depends on how much the service user is actually willing to give up.
The government has done a lot over the past years in order to prevent smoking. Current government targets for reducing smoking prevalence in the UK are to achieve a reduction in smoking rates from 26 per cent in 2002 to 21 per cent of the general population by 2010 (15). To achieve this target government have put many strategies in place. Smoking was recently banned in indoor places in England, on the 1st of July 2007. This included all places at work, pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and other places of entertainment. However smoking is still allowed outdoors, such as at home, in prison, care homes, designated hotel rooms. This means that there are still chances of severe illnesses which can affect non-smokers. (4) The major reason for the ban is to protect non-smokers from the harmful effects of the second-hand smoke, which include an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, emphysema and other chronic and acute diseases.
In my opinion I think that the smoking ban has been very successful so far and has improved health within the UK, however many people are still smoking. Evidence that shows that the public smoking ban is a success is the fact that you no longer see people smoking in pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and cafes. However in order to improve the prevent people who are still smoking the government along with the Public Health Practitioners can still do more to ensure that people don’t start smoking as well as to stop them. I think that the ban has changed the quality of life in certain areas I also think that it will make public places better and will also attract new people, as the environment will be smoke free.
On October 1st 2007, the law for selling tobacco also changed. It is now illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 (an increase from 16) in England and Wales. However I don’t think that raising the legal age of buying tobacco has been really effective. Reason being is that teenagers and children underage have been able to get hold of cigarettes for the past many years. Of which many of these young smokers say they buy their cigarettes from newsagents and corner shops. As a fact shop sellers are indeed serving young people without asking for an ID card regardless of the new law. Also the idea of an ID card has encouraged some young people to purchase false ID cards. These people are also finding other ways by getting older friends or family to buy their cigarettes for them.
The government are considering banning selling cigarettes from vending machines; I personally think this would be a very good idea. Reasons being are children are still at ease of accessibility of buying tobacco illegally in pubs, bars, hotels and social clubs. Evidence shows there are 70,000’s of them, selling 750 million cigarettes a year. In my opinion the banning of cigarette vending machines would reduce the outlets available to young people and therefore restrict their access to cigarettes.
In order to help prevent new people and stop current smokers from smoking the governments have set up advertisements to show dangers and health risks of smoking. These have been seen on the TV, radio, billboards, taxi cabs, busses, leaflets and posters around schools, towns and public places such as cinemas. The main idea behind this is to show the public the risks of smoking and make them aware of help lines available and the ways to stop. Public is often surprised by seeing the death rates of smoking and images of the health impacts it can have on the body.
To help people from all around the world to quit smoking there is a No Smoking Day. The No Smoking Day is also an excellent opportunity to stop smoking and there are affective free and friendly services available locally. It is an annual health awareness campaign that helps smokers that want to stop. The No Smoking Day was first introduced in London and now is a national event. On No Smoking Day, up to 1.5 million smokers make their first quit attempt and millions more use the day to take a step towards stopping smoking. However I don’t actually feel that this has been successful, reasons are that it hasn’t actually been widely advertised and not a lot of the population is aware of it. Also some people might give up smoking and get back to the same habit within a small period. Some people might even have a negative effect of it and might begin to smoke the next day.
Bibliography
Throughout this assignment I have put numbers in brackets, next to key terms/skills or definitions. This then refers to the bibliography that is set at the back of my assignment, which shows where I got the information
(1) Northamptonshire Teaching Primary Care Trust (NtPCT) 2008/09
(2) Public Health Annual Report
(3) NHS Leaflets from Abington Medical Centre
(4) Barratt, C. (1996). Intermediate Health and Social Care. Oxford, University Press
(5) Hilary, T. (1998). Hodder Intermediate GNVQ Health and Social Care. Oxon, British Library Cataloguing.
(6) Walsh, M. (2005). Collins Health and Social Care. London, HarperCollinsPublishers
(7) Website: http://www.ash.org.uk
(8) Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/health
(9) Website:
(10) Website:
(11) Website:
(12) Website:
(13) Website: http://www.roycastle.org/kats/
(14) Website:
(15) Website:
(16) Website:
(17) Website:
(18) Website:
