World Heart Day - cigarette butt pickup at hospital sites

On the eve of World Heart Day (28 September) local volunteers from Keep Wales Tidy and staff at three hospitals in North Wales will clean up the hospitals sites of cigarette butts to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking and the problem of smoking related litter in our communities.

Patch the dragon, mascot of the Fresh Start Wales campaign, will also be helping local children and volunteers to pick up cigarette stubs from the three main hospitals in North Wales, Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, Wrexham Maelor, Wrexham and Glan Clwyd, Rhyl. Andrew Jones, Executive Director of Public Health for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board said:”One of the main contributors to heart disease and stroke is smoking.

 “Despite the great reductions in smoking prevalence over the last few decades, smoking remains the largest single cause of avoidable ill health and early death in Wales. “Today we will be taking the opportunity to remind everybody that all hospital grounds have been smoke-free since 4 January this year. This means that all staff, patients, visitors and contractors are required to not smoke on the grounds." This year Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board will be supporting World Heart Day (29 September) by having a stand at each of the three main acute sites with information and advice on offer for anybody who wants to quit.

The Government has set ambitious targets aiming to reduce smoking prevalence from the current 24% to 16% of the Welsh population within 5 years. The hospital litter pick comes at the end of the Welsh Government sponsored, Tidy Wales Week, where local people are encouraged to show how much they care for their local area by getting involved in hands-on, problem-solving action. Last year over 20,000 people of all ages did their bit to clean up their neighbourhoods.

This week of action resulted in thousands of bags of litter being recovered by volunteers. Lesley Jones, Chief Executive of Keep Wales Tidy, said: “122 tonnes of cigarette ends are dropped everyday across the UK –that’s about 200 million cigarettes. We hope that through cleaning up the hospital sites people working, visiting and patients of the hospitals will realise that it’s not acceptable to drop cigarette butts.”