Following the news on Britain’s first outdoor smoking ban, and the plain packaging battle; we at Ecigarettedirect.co.uk wanted to get behind the lips of the smoker, and gain an insight into their thoughts and motives behind the habit.
Ecigarettedirect.co.uk surveyed 2000 smokers in the UK on their unhappiest and happiest life moments. We gained an insight into people’s happiest milestones and also their most stressful times too.
It was just a month ago that many people across the world set themselves the 2015 target to quit smoking. In a bid to encourage this, Bristol becomes the first city in the UK to ban smoking in outdoor public places, political parties start battling for plain cigarette packaging, and a ban on smoking in cars is said to come into force in October this year.
However, according to our survey results, both men and women said that actually stopping smoking is the most stressful task to overcome in their lives. A whopping 57% of female participants admitted that stopping smoking is more stressful that having a child, moving house or even losing their jobs. Strangely, 20% of women said smoking has in fact helped improve their job/career opportunities, and actually believe that smoking improves their love life too (26%).
Male participants of this survey also have a similar view. 21% believe it has improved their job/career opportunities, 27% say smoking has helped their love life, and even 21% are under the impression that smoking in fact boosts their health.
Nonetheless, when we asked these participants what would be the reason they quit smoking, the majority of both men (52%) and women (60%) admitted that the main reason would be due to health. Only 23% of women said they would quit if they were having a child, while 45% said they would quit more because of financial reasons.
When comparing the prices of cigarettes across 25 years, a pack of 20 has quintupled from the 1990’s till now. 25 years ago, the average packet of 20 cigarettes cost £1.65 and now costs around £8.47. When averaging this across the year, smokers could be spending around £1,500 on the habit, and the cost of this is something that motivates a lot of current smokers to quit.
We asked both female and male participants of this survey why they initially started smoking. The majority (37%) said it was simply due to curiosity, while they admit they would be happier if they quit, they will miss it!
James Dunworth, director of Ecigarette Direct said “As our survey shows, quitting smoking is extremely stressful and difficult for many smokers. We need to help and support smokers who want to quit, rather than take actions that further stigmatise them.”
He further says “It is difficult to see the justification for banning smoking outdoors, as smoking remains legal, while plain packs is likely to give smuggling a huge boost, redirecting money from taxes to the criminal underworld.”
In addition, research by Martin Lindstrom, author of Buyology, suggests that anti-smoking messages have exactly the opposite effect to that intended, as they stimulate the part of the brain that produces nicotine cravings (more detail here and here).