Smoke Free Blaenau Gwent

Some things you may not know about Blaenau Gwent:

620 people died from smoking in 2007
Second highest smoking rates in Wales (one third of all adults smoke)
Numbers of teenage smokers are increasing
One of the highest rates of obesity in Wales
One of the highest rates of respiratory and heart disease in Wales
Highest rate of low birth weight babies in Wales

To reduce these Blaenau Gwent statistics we are introducing a new project from the British Heart Foundation and the Aneurin Bevan Health Board called Smoke Free Blaenau Gwent.

Our aims are to prevent the uptake of smoking among young people and to reduce the exposure of tobacco smoke on children. We will approach the project in a number of ways:

We will be taking a community-wide approach to de-normalise smoking, looking at education in schools, as well as engaging with parents, young people and children about the benefits of being smoke-free.
We want young people to take ownership of the project and lead the way in promoting smoke-free messages among their peers and wider community.
We will engage with families, motivating them to reduce children’s exposure to second-hand smoke in the home and the car. Our emphasis will be on the direct health benefits and the way children model their parents’ behaviour.
We will provide information and advice so that parents and families are aware of the issues and are equipped to make their homes and cars smoke free zones.
We will create new quality standards for smoking education and a smoke-free settings award scheme. This will encourage services, schools, youth clubs and early years settings to actively support smoking prevention. We aim to help Blaenau Gwent provide good quality, consistent smoking education, reinforced by staff and volunteers who are good role models.
We will build positively on current work with local retailers, the Trading Standards department and young people to reduce the availability of tobacco to underage young people.

We would like your help to reduce the number of smoking related diseases and deaths in Blaenau Gwent. In most cases making a small change can help, for example not smoking inside the home or car can help protect your family.

For more information on the Smoke Free Blaenau Gwent project please contact:

Scott Carey
01495 325448
scott.carey@wales.nhs.uk

Liz Clarke
01495 325419
elizabeth.clarke2@wales.nhs.uk