RESIDENTS are being urged to kick their tobacco habits as part of this year’s No Smoking Day on Wednesday (March 9).
Figures released by the British Heart Foundation show more than 1,180 people in Bromsgrove alone – 90 per cent of which are smokers or ex-smokers – could be living with a serious vascular condition, which could lead to leg amputation or a fatal heart attack.
The BHF is urging Bromsgrove smokers to give up the deadly habit and lower their risk of peripheral arterial disease (PAD).
When symptoms are left untreated, the leg tissue may begin to die. This causes gangrene and, in its severest form, critical limb ischemia (CLI), which results in amputation occurs in around 30 per cent of cases.
There are 589 registered PAD patients in Bromsgrove but Bijan Modarai, a BHF Fellow and a consultant at King’s College London, said the number could be twice as high.
He said: “Approximately 30,000 adults across the UK have the most severe form of the condition, which results in at least 9,000 amputations per year.”
In the UK, nine out of every ten people who develop PAD currently smoke or have done so in the past, with some types of the disease almost exclusively found in smokers.
BHF Associate Medical Director Dr Mike Knapton, said stopping smoking was the single most effective way of reducing the risk of developing the potentially deadly disease and No Smoking Day on March 9 was a great time for smokers to start their quitting journey.”
Currently just under 10million UK adults smoke cigarettes, and there are 10,000 hospital admissions per week for diseases directly caused by smoking.
Visit www.nosmokingday.org.uk for more information.
