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September 23rd, 2008:

Smoking Help Goes Online

http://www.canstopsmoking.com/ | 23 September 2008

Smokers in Scotland will be able to get live assistance online to help them kick the habit, NHS Scotland has announced.

A website, called Can Stop Smoking, is being launched which will have advisors online between 18:00 and 20:00 to offer advice on giving up cigarettes.

The online service will run in addition to a telephone offering which is already in use.

‘The Smokeline telephone advice line as proved popular in the past and I’m sure that making use of new technology will enable even more people to access these services and take the first vital step to becoming a non-smoker,’ said Shona Robison, minister for public health.

More than 13,000 Scots die each year from smoking, the Scottish Government claims, with 1,000 of these from passive smoking.

The country has taken large steps in the last through years to deal with smoking-related diseases, including becoming the first UK country to introduce a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces in 2006.