1 In 10 Smokers Are Desperate To Give Up, Poll Suggests

One in 10 smokers are "desperate" to give up, a poll suggests.

A survey, conducted on behalf of the British Heart Foundation's 30th annual No Smoking Day, found that 11% of smokers are desperate to kick the habit.

And 82% of 2,000 UK smokers surveyed had tried and failed to quit.

The charity is encouraging smokers to "swap fags for swag" by thinking about how much money they could save if they quit.

Someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day could save £2,555 a year if they kicked the habit, a spokeswoman said.

The charity is using a new smartphone app, Blippar, which virtually transforms a cigarette pack into a puff of smoke.

Betty McBride, director of policy and communications at the BHF, said: "The tobacco giants are notoriously protective about their slick cigarette packaging - here's a bit of slick that does some good for once. We need to up our game if we are going to help people beat their addiction to tobacco by finding new ways to reach out to them."

Around one in five people smoke, according to the charity, and the latest data from the World Health Organisation shows that smoking prevalence in Europe is higher than the rest of the world.

A separate poll, conducted on 2,000 ex and current smokers by Pru Health, found that the average smoker spends 11% of income on tobacco.

Also on HuffPost:

Natural Ways To Quit Smoking

Mindfulness (01 of05)

Mindfulness training helped participants in a 2011 Drug and Alcohol Dependence study to stay off cigarettes. That study included 88 people who smoked 20 cigarettes daily, on average, who were split up into two groups: One received four weeks of mindfulness training, while the other group went through four weeks of an American Lung Association stop-smoking program. The researchers found that more of those who went through the mindfulness training smoked fewer cigarettes -- and stayed off them -- than those who went through the other stop-smoking program. The mindfulness training included realizing when you're facing a craving, accepting it, thinking about what's happening and then taking note of the sensation (whether it's tightness or pressure), Psychology Today reported. (credit:Alamy)

Weight Lifting (02 of05)

Jogging and bicycling aren't the only exercises that could help you kick the smoking habit -- Shape magazine reported that weightlifting could help, too.The research, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, showed that doing two hour-long weightlifting sessions for 12 weeks plus undergoing treatment to quit smoking was linked with greater success in quitting smoking, compared with just undergoing the stop-smoking treatment. (credit:ShutterStock)

Eat Produce(03 of05)

Eating lots of fruits and veggies could help smokers maintain a tobacco-free lifestyle, according to research from the University of Buffalo.The study, published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, included 1,000 smokers ages 25 and older. The researchers had the participants answer surveys about their smoking habits and their fruit and vegetable intake. Then, they followed up with them 14 months later and asked them if they used tobacco over the past month.The researchers found that there was a relationship between the amount of fruits and vegetables the study participants ate, and the likelihood that they quit -- and stayed off -- tobacco. In fact, people who ate the most produce in the study were three times more likely to report that they'd been tobacco free in the previous month.The researchers also found a link between increased produce consumption and taking longer in the day to have the first cigarette, smoking fewer cigarettes, and decreased dependence on nicotine (based on test results). (credit:Alamy)

Acupuncture And Hypnosis(04 of05)

A review of studies suggests there is evidence that acupuncture and hypnosis can work to help quit smoking, Reuters reported. Researchers, who published their findings in the American Journal of Medicine, said that other options -- like medications and counseling -- should be tried first, but that hypnosis and acupuncture could help if those options don't work, or if people don't want to go on medications, according to Reuters. (credit:Alamy)

Text Messages (05 of05)

Who knew your phone could be used to help you quit smoking? A recent study published in the journal The Lancet showed that smokers who enrolled in a program called "txt2stop" -- where they received encouraging text messages to quit smoking -- were twice as likely to kick the habit after six months, compared with smokers who didn't get any encouraging messages. In the study, conducted by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, one group was able to text words like "lapse" and "crave" to a phone number, and received an encouraging text message in return, CNET reported. The other group of people, however, only got one text message every two weeks, and that message just thanked them for being part of the study. (credit:ShutterStock)

:: Smokers who want help in quitting are encouraged to visit wequit.co.uk or call 0800 434 6677.

quit smoking Health News No Smoking Day Smoking how to quit smoking

Related