Richmond has some of the lowest rates of smokers in England

The report which was carried out by the Vape Club also indicated that despite London obtaining the highest rates of smokers in England, smoking did not seem to affect people of Richmond upon Thames.

In 2018, the smoking-related hospital admission frequency for the borough was of 5.9 per cent while the average frequency overall for Londoners during 2018 was 13.9 per cent and the overall average for England was 14.45 per cent.

Dan, Marchant of Vape Club said: "We are delighted to see that the data shows that Richmond is doing so well at tackling smoking, with Richmond coming top of the leader-board with the lowest smoking prevalence in London and England.

“This sets a great example to rest of the England and shows what can be done as a result of support of effective smoking cessation, of which we now find a large portion of ex-smokers using vaping as a method to quit successfully.

During 2018, the capital’s average for hospital admissions were 1,370 per 100,000 of the population giving the capital a regional Rank of: 2/32

And, across England average hospital admissions stood at 1,530 per 100,000 of the population – which nationally Ranks at: 9/150

Dan added: “Areas across the rest of England which have high smoking prevalence rates need to be targeted with effective smoking cessation methods.

“With there being 8,825 smokers left in Richmond and based on the UK-wide proportion of smokers to vapers, we could estimate there are around 4,000 vapers in Richmond."

The London Borough of Islington had 2,143 smoking-related hospital admissions per 100,000 of the population – well above the England average of 1,530 admissions per 100,000.

In Hammersmith and Fulham there were 2,037 admissions compared to the Redbridge Borough which had just 913 hospital admissions make it the fourth lowest in the UK.

In fact, while smoking rates in the UK are declining, hospital admissions related to smoking are rising, and there is a concerning trend of cuts to smoking cessation services.

A report published by The British Lung Foundation (TBLF) found that in July - the number of GP fell over the past decade by 75%.

TBLF also suggested that for smoking in the capital to reduce the UK Government must reverse public funding cuts for ‘quit smoking’ services to be available to the public.

It also indicates that all commissioners for ‘stop smoking’ services must remove unfair restrictions on the number of ‘quit smoking’ products can be prescribed to patients.

The borough of Barking & Dagenham proved to be the area with the highest rates of smoker -related admissions standing at 22.4 per cent, making it the 18th worst rated across the south eastern region.

The second highest-ranking area in London is Tower Hamlets (22.4%) followed by Newham (18.2%).

The NHS reports show that during 2016 and 2017, there were estimated to be 484,700 hospital admissions attributable to smoking which increased by two per cent compared to 474,300 admissions in 2015 and 2016.

Around 22 per cent of all admissions for respiratory diseases, were attributable to smoking and 47 per cent of admissions for cancers caused by smoking, were estimated to be attributable to smoking.

The number of prescription items dispensed in England in 2017/18 was 0.86 million, compared to 2.48 million ten years ago.

For more information visit:

https://blog.vapeclub.co.uk/uks-vaping-capital-revealed-hertfordshire-takes-the-top-spot/