Stop Smoking Campaign –Wednesfield North
The Wolverhampton city council has a statutory duty to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of its citizens. This is a fact!
In the Public Health report for Wolverhampton – Public Health Annual Report for 2014/15,it said “Lifestyle Choices: A Time to Start and a Time to Stop “, raises the significant difference between the health outcomes of children and adults within our City compared to regional and national outcomes.
That report signalled the fact that this City had some Lifestyle choices to make.
Hat report highlighted “ that infant mortality rates, obesity in adults and children, smoking in pregnancy and life expectancy for both men and women are worse in Wolverhampton than the average across England.”
It went onto say that “ The need to address lifestyle changes has to be at the heart of a preventative approach. There is recognition, within the Annual Report and the Public Health Prevention Plan, of the importance of the environment in which we live, work and play including our green spaces and opportunities to promote physical activity and wellbeing.”
It is because of that statement that today I have outlined – why we have taken the decision to do more as individual Councillors.
Both my Wednesfield North Councillor colleagues – Councillor Rita Potter and Councillor Mary Bateman agree with this approach and are working with me to achieve a better result for Wednesfield North. With a view to adding even more focus on getting people to give up smoking in this Ward of Wednesfield North.
We know that “Prevention is promoted through improving current services and encouraging the consideration of new, innovative programmes.”
That is why the three City Councillors in this Ward are doing much more than just letting the City promote ‘No Smoking’.
Whilst I am leading on this, all three of us are working as a team to deliver the message in our Advice Surgeries and on our Social Media sites.
We are working in Partnership with the Health Professional from the Public Health Directors team, based at the Hub at Ashmore Park, to get out and into our constituents homes with this message.
The Public Health Director tells us that “Key Facts on Smoking in Wolverhampton are that Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable ill-health and premature death causing harm to almost every organ in the body.
Although there has been a substantial reduction in the prevalence of smoking over the past 30 years, smoking still remains a major significant health issue across local and national populations.
Protection of children from the major cause of harm associated with exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, needs to become a high public health priority for the prevention of current and future ill-health, as well as to reduce health inequalities. The initiation, maintenance and cessation of smoking is strongly influenced by peers and other family members.
The results of the Wolverhampton young person’s Health Related Behaviour Survey, outlines the high level of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke within the home, particularly at a young age.”
Councillor Bateman said that we are told by the lifestyle Choices Report that “It is also quite concerning that 23% of 5-7 year olds who participated in this survey indicate that they may smoke or intend to smoke when they are older. This finding reinforces the increased risk of smoking amongst children and young people who are exposed to smoking within the home.”
Smoking in Pregnancy
Smoking during pregnancy can have adverse outcomes for maternal and child health, contributing to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, low birth weight, sudden infant death and other chronic conditions throughout both childhood and adulthood.
In Conclusion Wednesfield North Councillors feel that we have a role to play in trying hard to ensure that our constituents are made aware of the health problems, and also that we play a full role in partnership with working with the Public Health team to improve awareness and ultimately the statistics for the better here in Wednesfield North.
