Image copyright
fake pictures
More than a million people have quit smoking since the Covid-19 pandemic, suggests a survey by the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).
Of those who had quit smoking in the previous four months, 41% said it was a direct response to the coronavirus.
Separately, University College London (UCL) found that more people quit smoking in the year to June 2020 than in any other year since their survey began in 2007.
The government council says smokers may be at risk for more severe Covid symptoms.
Between April 15 and June 20, a representative sample of 10,000 people, registered by pollster YouGov on behalf of Ash, were asked about their smoking habits.
The results were used to estimate the total number of people who quit smoking in the UK.
Just under half of people who had resigned in the past four months said the pandemic had played a role in their decision. That may be due to a variety of factors including health problems, access to tobacco while isolating or no longer smoking socially.
A team from University College London has been asking 1,000 people a month in England about their smoking habits since 2007 as part of the Smoking Tools Study.
In the year to June 2020, 7.6% of smokers who participated in the survey stopped smoking, almost a third more than the average and the highest proportion since the survey began more than a decade ago.
On average, 5.9% of smokers surveyed stopped smoking per year since 2007.
Ash director Deborah Arnott said: “More than a million smokers may have quit since Covid-19 hit Britain, but millions more have continued to smoke.”
In total, around 7 million people in the UK were smokers in 2019.
Ash is launching a smoking cessation campaign funded by the Department of Health and Social Care, targeting people in the areas of the country with the highest rates of smoking.
Image copyright
Photograph of Elliot Nichol
Craggs was hospitalized in January and again in March, although he has not tested positive for coronavirus.
Terrence Craggs, who lives in Newcastle, quit smoking after spending time in the hospital on oxygen, although his coronavirus test was negative.
“I could hardly breathe,” he said. “I was looking for air all the time. [The pandemic] it’s more of an incentive to stay away from them, even though it’s more difficult right now due to stress, “he told the BBC.
The Northeast has seen a greater drop in the number of smokers than anywhere in England since 2005.
What are the risks?
Data from the Zoe Covid Symptom Tracker app suggested that smokers were 14% more likely than nonsmokers to develop the three “classic” symptoms of coronavirus infection: fever, persistent cough, and shortness of breath.
The app, created by researchers at Guy and St Thomas Hospitals and King’s College London, analyzed data from more than 2.4 million participants in the UK.
Their analysis found that smokers with a positive Covid-19 test were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized as nonsmokers with coronavirus.
This aligns with US research that found that smokers hospitalized with coronaviruses were 1.8 times more likely to die.
Although the small number of smokers in Zoe’s study who took a coronavirus test seemed less likely than nonsmokers to test positive, those who did so were more likely to report severe symptoms.
Some studies around the world have suggested that smoking may have a protective effect against the coronavirus. This is based on patient groups from hospitals where smokers appeared to be underrepresented, compared to their numbers in the general population.
Dr. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, from the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, said there was a “biologically plausible” explanation: that nicotine could be blocking the same receptors the virus uses to enter cells .
But, he said, the “clinical significance” of these studies is “completely uncertain.”
“This is not consistent across studies and it is unclear whether the data from these studies is reliable,” he said.
Smoking itself, rather than simply taking nicotine through a patch or chewing gum, is “exceptionally fatal,” he said, which means that the health damage far outweighs any potential benefit.
The Public Health Guide for England states: “There is strong evidence that tobacco smoking is generally associated with an increased risk of developing respiratory viral infections.
“Smoking causes damage to the lungs and airways and damages the immune system, reducing its ability to fight infection.”
Follow Rachel On twitter
- GREAT BRITAIN CANCER CRISIS: How has cancer care been affected by Covid-19?
- DIET AND IMMUNE SYSTEM How important is a healthy diet?
