Going up in smoke

By Merill Haseen

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THE AMOUNT of tobacco smoked in this country has risen for the first time in 25 years. Trade figures show that 107.6 billion cigarettes were smoked last year - that's 6.6 billion more than in 1997.

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Heavy taxes on cigarettes have done nothing to deter people from smoking. In fact, they may have made things worse. The tobacco trade claims that the Government's high-tax policy has misfired because people are turning instead to cut-price black market cigarettes, which are smuggled in from Europe.

• The Government has put �3 million into a programme that aims to cut smoking among pregnant women. About 24% of women admit they smoked during pregnancy, despite strong evidence that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of low birth weight babies, miscarriage and stillbirth. The money will be used to fund one-to-one sessions with a counsellor, and to help those mothers who are too addicted to stop cope with feeling stigmatised.

• An American company has created a nicotine-free cigarette which could be on sale here this year. GM technology has been used to grow a new strain of tobacco which only has a trace amount of nicotine. Clive Bates of the UK-based anti-smoking group ASH says, 'Smokers will not want these cigarettes because there will be no nicotine "hit". It's the equivalent of alcohol-free beer and is likely to be about as popular.' He added that the new cigarettes would still be damaging to health since there were thousands of chemicals in tobacco smoke, including hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde.

• In December, the anti-smoking charity Quit revealed that a record number of people tried to stop smoking last year. Up to 1.7 million people pledged to quit the habit, but only about 50,000 succeeded. Mike Richards, director of National Cancer, says: 'Smoking kills 120,000 Britons a year, that's 300 a day. It is the largest single preventable cause of cancer in this country.'

If you want to quit smoking, there are medical advancements, such as nicotine replacement therapy (which includes nasal sprays, patches and chewing gum) and new drugs like Zyban, which can help. Contact Quit for help and information, or pass on your tips for giving up cigarettes here.

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