One-stop shop tackling smoking

By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Rachelle is determined to stop smoking

It is just over a week since Rachelle Moore had her last cigarette.

She has given up before, but is adamant that this time she is quitting for good, thanks to help from London's first one-stop smoking shop - set up in her home area of Barking and Dagenham.

The 21-year-old, who says she has been smoking about 10-a-day for 10 years, knows it will be a struggle, but insists she wants to get fit for her three-year-old daughter Kezeah.

Smoking since 11

"I want to be healthy and when my little girl runs around I want to be able to run with her. I don't want to get out of breath and have my skin ageing. It is not good for your health," she added.

Smoking obviously contributes to stroke and it contributes to heart attack as well as other health issues Dr Justin Varney

"I am quite naughty as I have been smoking since I was 11 years old.

"I got bullied at school and so I started smoking because it made me feel better. It was my comforter," she said.

Rachelle lives in a part of east London that has an acute problem with smoking.

One person each day dies because of smoking in Dagenham and Barking.

One-fifth of all deaths in the area are related to the habit.

Its residents' life expectancy is lower than the national average - 75.3 years for men and 79.4 for women, compared with 76.9 for men and 81.1 for women nationally.

High mortality

Dr Justin Varney, a public health expert at Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust, said: "Smoking here is a big issue.

"We have unfortunately some of the lowest life expectancy in the country and we are one of the spearhead areas for the government in trying to improve life expectancy for the population.

Smoking accounts for one in five deaths in Barking and Dagenham

"Smoking obviously contributes to stroke and it contributes to heart attack, as well as other health issues.

"We can make a big difference to health in the area, if we can get people to stop smoking."

But Dr Varney said current methods of encouraging smokers had proved ineffectual.

He said PCT research had shown smokers wanted to speak to counsellors face-to-face, rather just over the phone.

So he said it had come up with the idea of a smoking cessation shop to help people such as Rachelle.

"The feedback we got is that people would quite appreciate somewhere where they could just walk in and have a chat about what the options are, face-to-face with someone," he added.

Tests

As well as offering specialist advice, the shop also offers various tests that highlight the damaging health effects of smoking.

This includes a test to see how "old" a person's lungs are and a device which measures levels of carbon monoxide in the lungs.

The shop also offers a range of treatments from prescription drugs and nicotine patches to nasal sprays and gums.

If the shop is a success, the PCT will open a second in Dagenham.

The new stop smoking shop

Plans are already afoot to start offering healthy lifestyle advice from the existing shop this spring.

The chief executive of Barking and Dagenham PCT, Hilary Ayerst, who helped open the "For the health of it" shop, said she hoped it would provide extra support for those wishing to stop smoking.

"Smoking accounts for a fifth of all deaths in Barking and Dagenham and a third of all borough residents with serious illnesses smoke.

"Smoking is also a huge cost to the local economy - we spend around £29m a year on smoking-related health care and services," she said.

"We also know that the easier we make it for smokers to access the service, the more success we will see."