Latest figures show women in poorest areas more than 4½ times more likely to smoke than women in affluent areas

The Irish Cancer Society has said that new measures must be taken as a matter of urgency to bring down the seriously high rate of smoking in our poorer communities. “The latest smoking figures from the HSE reveals that women living in poorer communities are more than 4½ times more likely to smoke than those in more affluent communities ,” says Kathleen O’Meara, Head of Advocacy and Communications. “Women smokers need a new approach to help them to quit. This is why our ‘We Can Quit’ project has been working in communities with high smoking rates and why we want the HSE to adopt it.”  Following the startling revelation in 2011 that for the first time, more women in Ireland were dying from lung cancer than breast cancer, the Irish Cancer Society decided it needed to act to tackle this crisis. Born out of a conference on the issue of women and smoking, ‘We Can Quit’ is a community based approach to support women from socially and economically disadvantaged communities to give up smoking. It has been developed by the Irish Cancer Society, in partnership with the National Women’s Council of Ireland, the Institute of Public Health Ireland, the HSE and local development partnerships.  The Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar TD is launching the report on the findings of the ‘We Can Quit’ pilot project in one of the two areas in which it has been running, in Dublin West.  ‘We Can Quit’ provides smokers with group and one-to-one support from trained community facilitators as well as access to free nicotine replacement therapies (NRT), through the local pharmacy. “The feedback from the women indicates that the quality of the support delivered by staff, combined with the access to free NRT played an important role in encouraging these women to quit,” says Kathleen O’Meara.  “The results are very encouraging. We believe that this pilot project can be taken on by the Department of Health and the HSE to work in these communities to cut the smoking rate there.   “The way nicotine replacements are made available is one key area to focus on.  The study makes a number of recommendations such as removing VAT on patches, gums and other products; and making NRT available for free to those who sign-up for a cessation programme like ‘We Can Quit’.  “We require innovative, out-of-the-box thinking on smoking cessation over the coming years and such efforts require additional funding from the Exchequer. Investing in smoking cessation services is one of the most cost-effective ways of improving the nation’s health.”  The Irish Cancer Society says that more than 50,000 smokers need to quit every year to meet the Department of Health’s ambitious target of a tobacco-free Ireland by 2025.   At the launch of the pilot smoking cessation project ‘We Can Quit’, the Society is calling on the Department of Health and the HSE to plan an equally ambitious strategy to help the 81% of smokers who want to quit.  “The number of people smoking in Ireland has been falling consistently over the past ten years,” says Ms O’Meara. “As we approach World No Tobacco Day on Sunday 31 May, the challenge now is to target quit services in areas where smoking rates are highest. “’We Can Quit’ has the potential to help hundreds of women in Ireland stop smoking and for Ireland to be one step closer to being tobacco free.” See full report and summary: [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"4101","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"69","width":"66"}}]] Irish Cancer Society "We Can Quit" Main Report [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"4102","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"69","width":"66"}}]] Irish Cancer Society "We Can Quit" Summary Report