With smoke free workplace legislation coming into effect in April for Wales and Northern Ireland and July for England, there’s never been more incentive to kick the habit. No Smoking Day on 14 March aims to help you do just that.

Council officers will be policing the implementation of the new smoke free office law by doing spot checks and issuing instant £30 fines to smokers for non-compliance.

One in five smokers say that they will try to, or will definitely stop smoking when the UK goes completely smoke-free from 1st July, new figures reveal.

And, if every smoker who stopped was successful, the number of lives saved would be 1.25 million.

“No Smoking Day is the ideal opportunity to stop smoking before Smokefree comes into place this summer, said Ben Youdan, Chief Executive of. No Smoking Day, the charity behind today’s campaign. “More than two-thirds of smokers say they want to quit smoking and should seek advice and support from stop smoking services to do that.”

He added that this could be one of the biggest changes in public health in decades. “This year £56 million has been spent on NHS stop smoking services who are expecting their busiest ever year,” he said.

While the change in the law is controversial, it’s difficult to ignore the facts: There are over 4000 toxins in cigarette smoke, including arsenic and cyanide, at least 60 of these chemicals are carcinogenic.

Smoking causes 30 per cent of all cancer deaths (including at least 84 per cent of lung cancer deaths), 17 per cent of all heart disease deaths and at least 80 per cent of deaths from bronchitis and emphysema. Secondhand smoke also claims 500 lives a week, according to Health Select Committee figures.

It’s also expensive. At today's prices, a 20-a-day smoker will spend more than 37 thousand pounds on tobacco over the next 20 years.

One in ten people admit to being ‘secret smokers,’ according to leading Employee Assistance Programme Provider CiC, highlighting the fact that smokers will often go out of their way to hide if from friends and family and avoid addressing the health threats that smoking poses.

For five top tips to quite smoking, Click here.

Visit www.cic-eap.co.uk