Smoking ban 'helps 400,000 to quit'

More than 400,000 people in England have given up smoking thanks to the ban on lighting up in public introduced a year ago tomorrow, a study claims.

The surge in numbers kicking the habit is expected to save 40,000 former smokers from early death over the next ten years.

Researchers tracked 32,000 smokers before and after the ban came into effect.

In the nine months prior to the ban 1.6 per cent gave up smoking, compared with 5.5 per cent in the following nine months.

The survey results will be presented to the UK National Smoking Cessation Conference in Birmingham tomorrow, marking the first anniversary of the ban in pubs, restaurants and other public places.

Professor Robert West, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco studies, who carried out the survey, said: 'These figures show the largest fall in the number of smokers on record.

'I never expected such a dramatic impact and of course there are no guarantees that smoking rates will not climb back up again.

'But if the Department of Health can keep up the momentum this has created, there is a realistic prospect of achieving a target of less than 15 per cent of the population smoking within the next ten years.'

Another study by the Health Department will show a similar trend, with 234,060 people making successful use of the NHS Quit Smoking Service since last July - 22 per cent more than the same period a year earlier.

But separate research shows that new rules raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes from 16 to 18 are not being strictly enforced.

An annual survey of all underage 'sting' test purchases by trading standards officers found the proportion of shops caught selling to under-age customers rose from 13 to 19 per cent last year.