Sidmouth smokers urged to ditch roll-ups

Valentine’s Day campaign raises awareness of hand-rolled tobacco harm

SIDMOUTH smokers and others across Devon are being urged to end their love affair with smoking roll-ups.

Valentine’s Day was chosen to launch a national campaign to raise awareness of the harm of using hand-rolled tobacco.

According to Smokefree South West, one in three smokers in the region regularly use roll-ups – the highest rate in the country.

Dr Virginia Pearson, NHS Devon’s director of public health, said: “Many people think that smoking hand-rolled cigarettes is less dangerous than smoking manufactured ones, but in fact roll-ups are just as, if not more dangerous than manufactured cigarettes.

“The amount of nicotine and tar is usually higher in roll-ups than pre-made cigarettes, making them potentially more addictive and more dangerous.”

She said people were four times more likely to stop smoking with NHS support.

You can contact NHS Devon’s stop smoking service on stopsmoking.devonpct@nhs.net or (01884) 836 024.

*Roll-ups contain around 4,000 chemicals, many of them toxic carcinogens such as cyanide, ammonia and arsenic.