User talk:Department of health

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causing many diseases, and reduces quality of life and life expectancy. It has been estimated that, in England, 364,000 patients are admitted to NHS hospitals each year due to diseases caused by smoking. This translates into 7,000 hospital admissions per week, or 1,000 day. [1] For every death caused by smoking, approximately 20 smokers are suffering from a smoking related disease. [2] In 1997/98, cigarette smoking caused an estimated 480,000 patients to consult their GP for heart disease, 20,000 for stroke and nearly 600,000 for COPD. 1

Consequently, no smoking day was introduced on January 27th 1996 and each year the event has become increasingly more significant in encouraging and reducing the number of smokers annually. As a result, in the Autumn of 2007, the department of health introduced a no smoking week to commence in the place of no smoking day 2008, to encourage people further to reduce the amount of cigarettes consumed in the UK. Further developments are under consideration as views towards smoking are becoming increasingly negative.