Stubbing out the habit: Smoking declines in Jersey
The number of people smoking tobacco products in Jersey has gone down.
One in seven people were found to be smokers in 2019 compared with one in four in 2005.
A report from Statistics Jersey, looking into smoking in the island, has found that 120 deaths were linked to smoking in 2018 which represented 15% of the overall deaths in Jersey during that year.
In that 2018 alone 890 hospital admissions were connected to smoking, which was three percent of the total admissions.
Meanwhile the report also found that around seven percent of the population used e-cigarettes in 2019, with one in twenty secondary school pupils admitting to using them.
However, the findings show that the number of cigarettes smoked each day by adults in the island over the last ten years remained about the same at around 14 per day.
Despite that, in 2018 almost 60% of smokers aged 16 and over say they wanted to quit with 440 people successfully doing so through Help2Quit service last year.
One other figure the report highlighted was that one in six babies born in 2019 were living in a household where they were exposed to those smoking tobacco.
Within the findings, those working in manual jobs and routine professions were found to be the highest proportion of the population smoking at around 28%. That was compared to those working in technical, clerical and managerial occupations which was below 11%.
With tobacco products once being a huge industry for Jersey, the quantity imported into the island has reduced by more than half since 2006.