over 50% of smokers say that they are smoking less

According to a fresh survey done in the United Kingdom over 50% of smokers say that they are smoking less since the ban on smoking in public places was started. Just over 1,000 people were interviewed and the results showed that almost two percent had completely quit smoking, almost sixteen percent said that they were smoking less throughout the day and 34 percent said that they were now smoking less when they went out to have drinks in pubs, bars and nightclubs.

The survey that was started by the company Ciao Surveys also noted that the popularity of the ban is slightly down since it started. They said that just before the ban came into force 36 percent of smokers and 90 percent of non smokers said that they were 100% behind the smoking ban. Six weeks after the smoking ban was put into force 31 percent of smokers said that they supported it and 87 percent of non smokers said the same.

The concept of having a ban on smoking in outdoor public areas has also been debated in the United Kingdom but has not been enacted yet. In a survey done just before the smoking ban started thirteen percent of smokers said that it would be a good idea but now that figure has dropped to 11.5 percent. Among non smokers the support for an outdoor public area ban has decreased from 63 percent to 55 percent.

Another thing that the survey looked at was whether nonsmokers would now be keener to go out in the evening to bars and clubs when the smoking ban came in but the results show that this is not really the case and their ‘going out’ patterns do not appear to have changed despite many nonsmokers having said that they would definitely go out more if there was no secondhand smoke around.

The Department of Health said that they estimated that the smoking ban would mean that about 600,000 people would quit smoking over the course of time and that this would mean money would be saved by the National Health Service.