​Council tenants living in Cramlington and Blyth have taken advantage of a government scheme that is encouraging smokers to swap cigarettes for vapes.

As part of the pilot scheme, free vape starter kits were offered to town council tenants to help them kick the costly and dangerous habit.

They were invited to sign up for the six-week support programme and were offered a choice of products, strengths and flavours to allow smokers to find the best product for them.

The swap to stop scheme is part of a government pilot to help people quit. It is working with councils and others to offer a million smokers across England a free vaping starter kit -the first initiative of its kind in the world. The scheme is part of a series of new measures to help the government meet its ambition of being smokefree by 2030 - reducing smoking rates to five per cent or less.

Up to two out of three lifelong smokers will die from smoking. The costs of smoking to smokers, their families, the National Health Service and society are devastating.

Veronica Jones, a councillor and cabinet member for Improving Public Health and Wellbeing, said, “Smoking is an addiction which becomes a real challenge to quit, often taking several attempts.

“Research shows that vaping is an effective way of quitting smoking for good. Although vaping is not risk-free, it is a fraction of the risk of smoking and is proven to be a popular and effective way to help smokers end their habit.”

Evaluation of the pilot will be carried out to inform stop smoking support that will be provided in the future.

The county council also runs a free specialist stop smoking service offering personalised support to help you quit.

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