Smoking
Cigarettes have been proven to damage the health of smokers and those around them. They can cause heart disease and lung cancer and smoking kills around 120,000 people a year in the UK.
It is extremely harmful to smoke when pregnant and puts the baby at risk.
Quitting smoking isn't easy, but it can offer drastic improvements to your life and health.
Tobacco is still the North East’s biggest killer and cause of preventable disease.
Fresh provides a regional programme aimed at creating a smoke free North East. Their Take 7 Steps Out campaign aims to help people keep their homes smokefree, making them healthier and more pleasant places to live.
The Get Some Answers campaign aims to stamp out the trade in illegal smuggled and counterfeit tobacco and cigarettes. Because illegal cigarettes are far cheaper - up to half the price of legal ones - they make it easier for children to take up the habit, encourage people to smoke more and make it harder for smokers to quit. Smuggled and counterfeit tobacco often does not meet the standards set down by the UK Government for permitted levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. It may even contain additional harmful chemicals and other substances that are hazardous to health.
If you smoke and want help and support to stop, contact the NHS Smoking Helpline on Freephone 0800 169 0169.
Visit the NHS Smokefree website for information, help and advice and to order a free 'quit kit' which will help you find your best way of stopping smoking.