MORE services to help people quit smoking have been promised by the Government today, during the country's first World No Tobacco Day.

The event falls only weeks after the Evening Press and Selby and York Primary Care Trust launched the Yes to Clean Air campaign, to protect workers from the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint revealed statistics showing more people than ever before in Yorkshire are giving up smoking using the NHS Stop Smoking Services.

The latest figures, covering 2003 and 2004, show an increase of 38 per cent, which health chiefs hope to boost by expanding the services to people in supermarkets and pubs as well as health centres.

Ms Flint said nationally, the NHS had helped more than a quarter of a million people quit in the past year.

Ms Flint said: "We know that Government action alone is not going to make people give up, it is the individual themselves who needs to make that decision to protect their health and the health of their loved-ones.

"Doctors, nurses and pharmacists enjoy a high degree of public trust and their regular contact with those with smoking related conditions puts them in a prime position to provide the support they need to give up for good."

Businesses in York, Selby and Easingwold have been signing up for Yes to Clean Air - a campaign which supports organisations to make their premises smoke-free and protect workers from the dangers of second- hand smoke.

Professor Paul Johnstone, regional director for public health in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "I am delighted that more than 25,000 people in our region have been helped to take a major step to improve their own health and have succeeded in stopping smoking.

"But we still have some of the highest smoking rates in the country and have to do more."

Updated: 11:23 Tuesday, May 31, 2005