Pushing the message to quit smoking

A series of No-Smoking Day events were held across the country last month by employers keen to encourage their staff to quit the habit and to embrace a healthy lifestyle.

QVC, the television shopping channel, set up a stall manned by representatives from Quit, the no-smoking charity, at its London office so that staff could drop by and learn more about the dangers of smoking. Quit provided smokers with personalised stop-smoking plans and also offered them the chance to have their carbon monoxide levels monitored.

Catherine Hawkins, HR officer at QVC, said: “These days, it is popular to promote health and wellbeing, and we ran the no-smoking day alongside a healthy-eating campaign in our cafeteria.”

Quit also visited Pfizer UK’s head office and handed out literature on ways to stop smoking. Representatives also spoke to employees about the benefits available at Pfizer to help them quit the habit. These include a telephone counselling service and on-site employee smoking cessation group.