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Evesham Gets in the Spirit of No Smoking Day

Trying to quit smoking can be one of the sternest tests of will power a person can endure. Once you have become addicted to nicotine, weaning yourself from the harmful habit of smoking can not only prove to be costly but all too often unsuccessful. Fortunately, there are now plenty of options available for those seeking to kick the habit for good and on Wednesday 16th March, the mayor and mayoress of Evesham were on hand to promote No Smoking Day at a pharmacy in Bengeworth.

The mayor, Councillor Jim Bulman, spent time at the pharmacy outlining the range of different options available to smokers to help them kick the habit, ranging from simply receiving initial advice and guidance on giving up from a trained pharmacist, to a range of therapies aimed at helping the smoker kick the habit permanently.

Certainly, several commonly known methods to quit smoking have been widely available for some time now. Many people are increasingly aware of items such as smokers' patches and gum to empower them to quit smoking. However, the increased focus on breaking the smoking habit means that there are new and innovative ideas coming onto the market to help smokers give up. One such method of giving up that is relatively new is the use of electronic cigarettes.

These cigarettes, or E Cigarettes as they have become commonly known, are quickly becoming a key weapon in the battle against the harmful effects of traditional smoking.

The reason for this popularity is easy to understand. While an E Cigarette gives the user a small boost of nicotine, produces a mist or vapour that is inhaled by the user and provides them with a range of sensations that both feel and taste like smoking, the real benefit is that an E Cigarette is far less damaging to the person using it.

For example, a typical cigarette when smoked produces 4,000+ chemicals, some of them known to be carcinogenic, which are either absorbed into the body or bloodstream of the smoker, or are exhaled into the environment, which is neither beneficial to the immediate air quality, or any people sitting close by.

The benefit of an E Cigarette is that although the cigarette accurately mimics the sensation of smoking, it does not produce any of these potentially harmful side effects. This means that electronic cigarettes are far less harmful to the user and do not produce any ill effects for those in their immediate vicinity, which is why E Cigarettes, or personal vaporiser as they are frequently called, are allowed to be used within enclosed environments such as public houses.

The reason they are safe is explained by the design and properties of a typical electronic cigarette. A traditional E cigarette contains three important parts: the battery that powers it, the eLiquid, which is what contains the nicotine, and an atomiser, which heats the eLiquid to produce the vapour. When the user takes a puff on the cigarette, the atomiser fires into action: it heats a small amount of eLiquid, which then atomises into a cloud, producing that familiar ‘smoking' effect.

E Cigarettes are not just a replacement for cigarettes, though. While many smokers are now using them as a replacement, due to them being legal inside not only pubs but anywhere they choose to use them and having far less impact on their health, it is also worth noting that E Cigarettes come in different sizes. This facilitates users moving from the larger cigarettes to the smaller sized ones as they reduce their smoking habits.

Additionally, the eLiquid comes in different strengths, meaning that weaning yourself from the addiction to nicotine is also easy to do, so you can reduce your smoking habit over time with far less noticeable negative impact on your body and mind.

For the people of Evesham, under the care of Worcestershire Primary Care Trust with the support of local pharmacies and the current mayor and mayoress, many of those who have struggled to kick the smoking habit in the past now have a new range of advanced, pharmaceutical and electronic items to try and help them kick the habit for good!

Certainly, there has never been a better time to ditch the harmful effects of smoking traditional cigarettes for good.