Crunch weekend for new quitters

...and the pounds 50m quitting trade. Ian Burrell on help for 1 January 's ex-smokers

IT IS the anti-smoking industry's annual frenzy. The third weekend of the year is the critical one for those who made a resolution to kick smoking and this year there are more potential cures on offer than ever. They are being advertised on the radio, on the sides of buses, and in bookshop showrooms.

Research suggests that the third weekend is a time when the physical addiction has receded but the post-holiday stresses of work have reinforced the psychological hunger for a relaxing fag.

The desire to quit has created a pounds 50m anti-smoking industry offering cures ranging from nicotine patches, chewing gum, and inhalers to self- help books, hypnotherapy, counselling, acupuncture and laser treatment.

Gay Sutherland, a clinical psychologist who runs the smokers' clinic at the National Addiction Centre (NAC) in London, warned: "Smoking cessation appears to be one of those areas where every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to jump on the bandwagon.

"The public are often hoodwinked into paying large sums for forms of treatment which have not been proved to be effective. It's just totally wrong."

The NAC does say, however, that nicotine-replacement therapy will more than double the would-be quitters chances of success. The market for nicotine- replacement therapies alone is now worth pounds 41m a year.

Two-thirds of the market is in sales of chewing gum, which allows nicotine to be absorbed into the cheeks, and sells at around pounds 4.50 for 24 sticks. The remainder is in nicotine-replacement patches which are usually placed on the upper-arm and sell for around pounds 14 each.

Nicorette and Nicotinell, which are produced by international chemical giants Pharmacia & Upjohn and Novartis respectively, are the most popular products, along with an own-brand range sold by Boots.

Nicorette's sponsorship of free transport for Londoners on New Year's Eve has been matched by rival Nicotinell posters being placed alongside the "No Smoking" signs on the London Underground.

At any time, around 2 million British smokers are estimated to be trying to give up and some 30 per cent will turn to nicotine-replacement treatments.

Cigarette companies have responded to the threat with their own January campaigns. Silk Cut has produced advertisements for its Ultra low-tar brand, using the slogan "January 1: What better time to move to 1mg?"

Amanda Sandford, of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: "It's very cynical. They are playing on smokers fears and suggesting that if they switch to these alternative low-tar cigarettes, they need not have any more worries."

But Martin Ball, of the pro-tobacco group Forest, complained that the anti-smoking industry was benefiting from the new government's publicly funded initiatives.

"A hugely advantageous climate is being provided for them by state-sponsored propaganda and you cannot blame them for trying to cash in on it," he said. "But is it right that the taxpayer is funding these campaigns, particularly when the taxpayers include adult smokers paying for campaigns that persecute them?"

But the enormous desire to quit cannot be denied. Waterstones reported great interest in self-help books, with Alan Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking at pounds 6.99 being "far and away" the best-seller in the field.

Nicorette launched its Inhalator in December. The Inhalator, which costs pounds 5.95, is designed to look like a cigarette holder and so fulfil the user's need to have something in their hand as well as providing nicotine.

There are also tablets and lozenges available, such as Stoppers and Super 25, which have not been subjected to clinical trials and are less effective because the nicotine is swallowed.

Another product involves chewing a gum which contains silver acetate, which is meant to produce a feeling of revulsion when the smoker has a cigarette.

Other smokers try to give up using alternative therapies, with the most popular being hypnotherapy and acupuncture.

Martin Bull, a Cambridge hypnotherapist, claims a success rate of between 20-50 per cent in helping smokers to quit. He says that by talking to clients under hypnosis he can give them the desire to give up smoking and at the same time address stressful areas of their lives which cause them to turn to smoking.

Mr Bull, a member of the National Association of Counsellors, Hypnotherapists and Psychotherapists, said the number of hypnotists had increased by up to fourfold in the last 15 years. "There are far too many and the degree of training differs from person to person," he said.

Although Mr Bull would hope to successfully treat a smoker in one pounds 45 session, he said other practitioners might ask clients to sign up for 10 sessions.

Quit, a government-supported charity for helping smokers to give up, which is currently running a heavyweight radio advertising campaign, says that there are now around 12 million ex-smokers in Britain.

Between January and March, when national no-smoking day takes place, the charity's helpline receives up to 3,000 calls a day, more than three times as many as in the rest of the year.

Detox diary

FOR a typical one-pack-a-day smoker, the blood pressure and pulse rate will return to normal within 20 minutes of finishing the last cigarette. Oxygen levels are normal after eight hours without smoking.

After a day, carbon monoxide is eliminated from the body and the lungs begin to clear of mucus.

Nicotine leaves the body within 48 hours and so the third day of quitting is reckoned to be the hardest day to overcome physically. The psychological cravings reach their peak at three weeks.

Circulation gradually improves over the next three months but it is five years before the risk of heart attack falls to around half that of a smoker. After 10 years, the risk of lung cancer is half that of a smoker.

The Quitline Freephone number is 0800 002200.