A study commissioned by the Department of Health and the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies has found that additional help offered to people wanting to quit smoking, in the form of free nicotine patches and extra counselling, makes little or no difference to their success. The research, conducted by researchers at the University of Nottingham and published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), found that additional support, on top of that which is already offered as standard from the NHS, did not help smokers to quit.

Smokers are being turned into ‘lepers’ and are being treated as ‘disgusting and dirty outcasts’, a report by a leading Department of Health adviser has claimed.  The study, written by Professor Hilary Graham and published by Cambridge University Press last month, said that anti-smoking campaigns and changes in the law to restrict smoking in public places have vilified smokers and turned them into a minority outcast group. 

In the report, Professor Graham likened the view towards smokers in society to the way indigenous groups and migrants had been viewed in the past; as threatening and potentially contaminating. In the study, non-smokers who were questioned described smoking as ‘a disgusting habit’.

Another year, another budget, another increase in the price of cigarettes. In the 2012 budget, announced by the Chancellor George Osborne last month, the price of a packet of cigarettes saw an increase of 37 pence – 5 per cent above the rate of inflation.

This latest increase in price confirms that the price of cigarettes shows no signs of slowing. Taking into account the recent budget announcement, the price of cigarettes has gone up by over 80 pence per packet in the past two years; taking the price of premium tobacco brands to around £7.30 per pack. The 37 pence increase alone will leave a 20-a-day smoker over £135 worse off. 

A study by researchers at Glasgow University has suggested that there has been a positive effect on asthma and respiratory disease problems in children since the smoking ban came into force in the country in 2006. The study analysed the number of children admitted to hospital with asthma-related health problem over a nine year period, spanning from before the smoking ban was brought into force to 3 years following its implementation. The results showed a 15% reduction in the number of asthma-related admissions over the period. 

A study in Scotland, which found there had been a significant reduction in the rate of premature births, has linked the finding to the smoking ban brought into force in the country nearly five years ago. The study by Plos Medicine found that over a five year period, there has been a 10% reduction in the rate of premature births and that the smoking ban in public places is the likely influencing factor. 

The research, which included data from over 700,000 women, links this significant reduction in early deliveries to reduced exposure to tobacco smoke, in both smokers and non-smokers. 

In this year’s annual budget, it was announced that an above-inflation increase in duty would be added to the price of a packet of cigarettes. The 37 pence per packet increase is double the combined increase from the previous two years’ budgets, suggesting that the government are adopting a hard line on tackling tobacco. In his budget speech on Wednesday, George Osborne prefaced the price increase by stating that "there is clear evidence that increasing the cost of tobacco encourages smokers to quit and discourages young people from taking it up."

Stacey Solomon has said she feels extremely ‘guilty’ after photographs published this week showed her smoking four cigarettes in two hours, despite the fact she is seven months pregnant. Ms Solomon, who found fame as a finalist in the X Factor in 2009, was caught smoking in an alleyway outside the studios where she was working on a photo shoot last week. 

Stacey Solomon isn’t the only mother-to-be who is struggling to stay off cigarettes, however. Only last month, an NHS survey found that levels of smoking, especially in Northern counties of England, were found to be worryingly high.