A campaign in English designed to help and encourage people to quit smoking conducted a survey that found that more than a million people have quit since the COVID-19 outbreak.
The campaign called Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) reported that 41% of people in the UK who stopped smoking cigarettes in 2020 said it was a direct result of the pandemic.
It was not confirmed whether this was partially or mainly due to lack of access to tobacco products due to blockages, or the implementation of social distancing measures that prevented the social use of cigarettes, or whether it was due to the links between smoking and virus infection. and hospitalization rates.
Strong evidence from various epidemiological studies linked cigarette smoking and lung health to a higher probability of developing the most severe panoply of symptoms derived from the new coronavirus.
Separately, the University College London survey of smoking rates found fewer smokers among the UK population in 2020 than in any year since they began taking the survey in 2007.
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The UCL annual smoking toolkit study found that the average number of smokers who quit in 2020 increased from the 13-year average from 5.9% to 7.6%.
Around 7 million people smoked in the UK in 2019. Since 2005, the north-eastern part of the country, with cities like Newcastle and Sunderland, has seen the biggest drop in smoking rates.
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