Welcome to the website of Fresh, the UK's only dedicated regional office for tobacco control.  In this site you will be able to access information about the work of Fresh, key national and regional initiatives to reduce smoking and also on local NHS stop smoking services to help the 70% of smokers who would like to quit.

England implemented comprehensive smokefree workplaces and enclosed public places legislation from 1st July 2007.  This is a major milestone in the long journey to substantially improve the health of our region and prevent the currently nearly 6,000 avoidable deaths each year from smoking related illness.

There is still much more work to be done though and details of this are given in the Fresh Business Plan for 2008/9. 

Government Consultation on the Future of Tobacco Control

Fresh welcomes the Government’s consultation on the future of tobacco control and the commitment to a new national tobacco control strategy.

Fresh, through the Smokefree Action Coalition, has just launched a new campaign urging the Government to ensure that the new national strategy:

bullet point Has the scope and ambition needed to tackle the full range of harm caused by tobacco
bullet point Is funded sufficiently to succeed
bullet point Is monitored, evaluated and updated regularly
bullet point Enlists help from across civil society

Smoking is still the major preventable cause of death and disease and inequalities in health, killing nearly 90,000 people in England each year- this is the popultation of the city of Durham.  Two thirds of smokers start before reaching 18. There is wide popular support for action to:

bullet point Protect young people from smoking and secondhand smoke
bullet point Reduce the inequalities in tobacco-related death and disease, a burden that weighs heaviest on the most disadvantaged in society who smoke most
bullet point Give greater help to those smokers who want to quit
bullet point Find ways of helping those smokers who cannot quit

To find out more go to the consultation section on this website.

The Tobacco Control National Support Team has recently published an important resource 'High Impact Changes for tobacco control'  This is a very useful tool for local tobacco alliances and Fresh will be holding a workshop around this on 13th June, visit our Events section. 

New Smoking Prevalence in the North East published - click here to access.