It’s been 5 years since the smoking ban was introduced in England and it has been hailed as bringing huge benefits. It has brought about huge behavioural changes, for example, where for many it’s a natural act for smokers to disappear to the designated areas and for others, it has altered whether they go out socially or create their social interactions at home.
Legislation like this sends huge signals to people that smoking is becoming more and more unacceptable and the aim is to reduce smoking related illnesses. This brings heightened awareness therefore, may smokers now smoke in designated parts of their home and the sight of a smoker near children is viewed with more distain than ever.
The statistics seem to be backing this up where reductions in hospital admissions for heart attacks and premature births have both dropped. The BBC news story tells us more – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18628811 .
For people who are wanting to quit, there are many methods and sources of help available. Your GP surgery can provide information about what is available locally and your local pharmacist can also help. Studies show that hypnotherapy, Counselling or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy are very effective to help people break their habit. When seeking to make any change in life, it’s important to find something that fits for us. Just because our friend found e-cigarettes to be effective, it doesn’t mean that they will work for us in the same way. Research and experimentation often allows us to assess what we feel would be best and if we try one method and find it’s not as effective as we’d like, we have learnt from that experience and can look for something else.