DURING the lockdown young people turned to lighting up to relieve their stress and boredom, according to a new study by University College London.
It found that there was a 25 per cent hike in the number of new 18- to 34-year-old smokers.
This spike in new smokers is an unwelcome hiccup as people have been generally shunning the ole smokes, which has caused levels to steadily decline from 24 per cent of NI adults in 2012 to the current 22 per cent. One in six of all deaths in NI are down to the knock-on effects of smoking.
The study, which was funded by Cancer Research, also found that on the flip side there were quite a lot of other people who used the lockdown hiatus to actually quit smoking.
Unless you have teeth and gums dusted in gold fairy sprinkles, normally a 20 a day habit for 20 years will wipe out enough bone around your teeth that you end up with the unwanted party trick of being able to sneeze your teeth out of your mouth into your handbag at will.
So, for those wanting to knock the cigarettes on the head, the Public Health Agency has paved the way for 600 specialist 'Stop Smoking' services across Northern Ireland.
They can be found in pharmacies, GP practices, hospitals and community groups and for easy access, you can try the great online resources at stopsmokingni.info.
The stop smoking specialist providers use both pharmacological and behavioural interventions that have been shown to be four times as effective at helping people to stay stopped.
The site has a savings calculator which eye-poppingly shows that you could snaffle away a pocket filling £20k over five years if you stopped buying a pack of 20, every day.
If that daydreaming lure isn't enough then would it help to know that just two days after you stop your sense of taste and smell begins to right itself so you can enjoy your food better?
By five years your risk of having a life-altering stroke reduces to that of a non-smoker in most cases.
The benefits don't stop there; at the 15-year mark the risk of your ticker suffering a major blockage event falls to that of a non-smoker and gives your teeth a fighting chance.
