§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to target smoking cessation activity on middle-aged women. [145227]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe national health service Stop Smoking Services are available to all smokers regardless of age or gender.
The tobacco information programme is designed to address all sections of the adult population and every opportunity is taken to obtain editorial coverage on the health pages of national newspapers and women's magazines.
314W We are not aware of any specific reason to target "middle aged women" separately. Women aged 35–60 have lower smoking rates than men of the same age and lower than those of young women.