As people consider their New Year's resolutions, a leading HSE doctor says it's "always a good time for someone who smokes to consider quitting".
The recent Healthy Ireland survey showed just under one in five people here smoke - down from around one in three people in the late 90s.
Dr Paul Kavanagh, HSE Public Health Medicine Specialist, told The Hard Shoulder that's good progress - but there's some concern the steady reduction has stalled in the last year or two.
He said that's perhaps a ‘blip in the data’, or potentially a reflection of how people's lives have been impacted by the COVID pandemic.
However, he stressed: “Smoking is one of the most harmful things you can do from the point of view of your health - most smokers are aware of that, and most smokers are interested in making a quit attempt.
“It’s always a better choice for someone to consider quitting than to continue smoking.
"If someone is in a younger age group… then the opportunity for them to reverse and bring their level of risk back to that of an average person in the population is better when they quit earlier in life.
“Even for people who have established disease, such as lung disease, due to smoking… one of the best things they can do in terms of their health is to quit. It’s always a good time for someone who smokes to consider quitting.”
Dr Kavanagh said his key message is for anyone who is considering quitting is to reach out for support and guidance.
He said: “The HSE can help. We have services available online at quit.ie and on the phone at freephone 1800-201-203.
"They are easy to access, can be tailored to the individual and are delivered by experts. Most of all, they work - they’re safe and effective."
Tips for quitting
Gary English has been off cigarettes since September. He had been smoking for 45 years - starting when he was just 12 years of age.
He had seen his mother and grandmother die from emphysema, but that wasn’t enough to dissuade him off cigarettes even though he knew it was bad for him.
His outlook changed when he had to go into hospital for a separate issue.
He recalled: "The surgeon who was doing the operation... he said 'you need to lose around two stone in weight, and you need to pack the cigarettes'. He said ‘in the event that we operate on you… you have such a higher rate of ending up in ICU because of your smoking’.
"My breathing was very poor - I had a horrendous cough.”
Gary initially resisted the call to give up smoking, but he was ultimately referred to the smoking cessation nurse in St James's Hospital.
He said the nurse had one important question for him that helped change his attitude: ‘Why are you allowing the cigarettes to control you? Why don’t you start to control them?’
The nurse also First him to stop smoking in the house, and to put them out in the shed instead.
Similarly, he was told to put the cigarettes in the boot of the car - requiring him to stop the car if he wanted a smoke.
Those two simple rules made Gary have to go out of his way to get a cigarette, rather than them being easily on hand whenever he was tempted.
He also found it helpful to imagine a 'good and bad angel' on his shoulders - the former serving to dissuade him when the 'bad angel' tempted him to smoke.
Gary said he did set a quit day, although ultimately went a week beyond that as he was on holiday.
Nonetheless, he did quit and started using nicotine lozenges and patches - aids he has been gradually able to reduce as the weeks and months have progressed.
He said he hopes to get off those aids eventually, but he believes he's much better off using them than smoking.
For now, however, the impact of quitting smoking has already made a big difference for Gary.
He said: “I can feel my lungs expand in the back of my body - I couldn’t feel that before I gave up the cigarettes.”
