Figures released by the Scottish Executive show there were 98,387 adult smokers in Tayside in 2000, 95,481 in 2001 and 87,766 in 2002.

The reduction was the third largest of any NHS board area since 2000.

Bill Edwards, a senior health promotion officer with NHS Tayside, said, “I’m very pleased indeed. It’s good to see results like these coming through.

“The figure represents a whole raft of people now improving in terms of health and seeing the early benefits of having stopped. They will go on now to enjoy the later benefits that come, such as reductions in lung cancer and coronary heart disease risks.”

Smoking is responsible for 13,000 deaths in Scotland and 33,500 hospital admissions each year, at an estimated cost of £200 million.

“The figure is a reflection of the time and energy we have put in to help with the setting up of smoking cessation services since the Government’s white paper was published in 1999,” said Mr Edwards.

Extra funding from the white paper Smoking Kills was used to establish new smoking cessation services, covering the whole of the Tayside area.

The three Local Health Care Co-operatives took a lead role in a range of new initiatives, which include training on basic smoking cessation techniques for primary care staff, community and retail pharmacists and shop counter staff, much of which has been provided by NHS Tayside’s Specialist Health Promotion Service.

Mr Edwards said funding increased the level of provision available to people who want to kick the habit in Tayside, aided by nicotine replacement products which came on to normal prescriptions.

“When you have group support and some kind of therapeutic aid, the outcome for the patient is usually better,” he said.

“We did our own survey and tracked about 1600 patients for a year from first contact, and approximately 14-15% were successful in stopping and staying stopped.”

One of the resources used in Tayside was a carbon monoxide monitor in an effort to show smokers the high levels of harmful chemicals they were ingesting by smoking and measure their personal risk.

“It is culturally becoming less and less acceptable to pollute the air with tobacco smoke, which has led to many ‘natural’ restrictions on smoking in public places,” said Mr Edwards.

The Executive’s tobacco control plan, called A Breath of Fresh Air for Scotland, includes a public consultation, which may lead to further curbs on smoking in public places.

Mr Edwards is backing moves already being discussed to remove smoking from every enclosed space where the public gather, including every bar, club, shopping centre and shop.

“This is smoking control’s year,” added Mr Edwards. “The tide of opinion is running, and we need to flow with it.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said, “While a reduction in the number of adult smokers in Scotland is to be welcomed, the Scottish Executive is not complacent on this issue, and it is undertaking a range of action to reduce that number even further.

“This includes massive investment in smoking cessation services.”

* Over 40% of expectant mothers in the most deprived areas of Fife have reported smoking during their pregnancies.

This alarming statistic has been revealed to members of the board of NHS Fife in the annual report from director of public health, Dr Lesley Macdonald.

The official has emphasised that work will be done at both local and national levels towards achievement of a ban on smoking in public places.

She said in her report that tobacco affects men, women, the young, the old and the unborn, and that it is the single largest cause of preventable ill health and premature death in Fife and in Scotland.

She said 800 people die every year in the Kingdom because of smoking, and that the habit is known to reduce life expectancy by an average of seven and a half years. In addition, it is a risk factor to heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer, with over 80% of respiratory disease attributable to smoking.

Dr Macdonald said a health and lifestyle survey carried out in Fife in 2001 had shown that 32% of men and 25% of women are smokers.

The survey, she said, demonstrated that the prevalence of smoking showed a “strong socio-economic gradient”, with areas of higher deprivation and lowest income having the biggest problems.

Another major challenge to be tackled in Fife is the continuing problem of coronary heart disease.

Again, said Dr Macdonald, there is a clear link with deprivation, and there is a threefold difference in mortality rate between patients from the least deprived and the most deprived areas. The situation is worst in the west Fife and Dunfermline areas.

Further steps to be taken in the Kingdom include the creation of a vascular disease prevention strategy by the end of this year and the recruitment of a replacement third cardiologist. There will also be further development of cardiology services.