Express & Star

Smokers cost Wolverhampton £70m each year

There are nearly 43,000 smokers in Wolverhampton, at a cost of around £70 million a year to the city economy, it has been revealed.

Published

The figures, compiled by Action on Smoking and Health(Ash), estimated the number of smokers in Wolverhampton at 42,900 ­— around 22.9 per cent of the population, compared to a West Midland average of 18.9 per cent.

Cabinet member for health, Councillor Mrs Sandra Samuels made the revelation to councillors and members have agreed to sign up to a national initiative to discourage smoking.

The cost to the economy was calculated on the basis of lost productivity at work, costs to the NHS and social care, as well as fires caused by smoking.

"Smokers cost the local economy £70.8 million a year, as well as spending £75.9 million a year on tobacco," she said.

Councillor Samuels added that as a former smoker she could sympathise with the difficulties many people had in trying to give up the habit, and said it was important that the council did its bit to help.

The figures revealed that smokers in the city paid out around £51.2 million in tobacco duty every year, but the cost to the local economy still left a shortfall of around £20 million.

A breakdown of the costs said smoking breaks by workers cost the local economy £29.4 million a year, with a further £5.3 million lost due to sick days.

The report said the NHS in Wolverhampton spent £9.5 million a year treating smoking related diseases, and a further £5.4 million was spent on social care.

Figures from Public Health England also revealed that smoking in Wolverhampton was found to be responsible for 329.8 deaths per 100,000 of the population, compared to a national average of 291.9.

Wolverhampton Council is to sign the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control, where local authorities pledge to reduce smoking levels and health inequalities by raising awareness of the harm caused by tobacco.

The authority will also be supporting the Stoptober campaign next month(OCT), and health trainers from Wolverhampton's Healthy Lifestyles service will be at the Civic Centre on Thursday from 2pm to 4pm to sign people up for the challenge.

They will then host drop-in stop smoking clinics at the centre between 2pm and 4pm every Thursdays throughout October.

Ros Jervis, Wolverhampton Council's director of public health, said while Wolverhampton's smoking rate was falling, far too many local people were still putting their health at risk.

"Stoptober is a great opportunity to make a serious quit attempt with the support of friends," she said.

"Last year, some 1,137 people in Wolverhampton signed up to Stoptober, and many of them went on to successfully quit. We want that number be even higher this year, so I'd encourage anyone who wants to give up smoking to sign up today and give it a go."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.