Rachel Lang
Smokers are getting an extra week off from work per year due to their habit, new research has revealed.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicates that 52 per cent of smokers step away from work for a ciggy or a vape several times per day.
Of those surveyed, they spend up to 20 minutes outside.
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That doesn’t sound like a big deal, right? Well, if you tally all that time together, it chalks up to quite an extended period away from your desk.
All that time back-to-back equates to roughly 39 hours on cigarette breaks in an entire year.
Talk about punching darts and breaking the hearts of all the non-smokers out there.
Break that down into work days, and smokers are getting six extra days off work per year.
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Smoking suddenly looks sort of cool again (but not really, don’t do it).
Roughly 6.6 million people in the United Kingdom smoke or vape, so that’s a hell of a lot of extra leave.
Men across the UK smoke more than women, with 15 per cent of men and 12 per cent of women sneaking out for a smoke break.
Generation Z smokes the most, followed by the baby boomers, as per the ONS report.
Millennials smoke the least, so it seems like all of those anti-smoking campaigns in the '80s and '90s made an impact.
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The ONS research found that in people in Belfast and Southampton are the cities where Britons are most likely to skive off work to smoke.
Another study, conducted by tobacco-free nicotine pouch producer Haypp, found that more than one third of smokers in Brighton and Hove who used to smoke have now successfully kicked the habit.
The research, released in February, compared quit rates across the UK and found that 36 per cent of smokers in the region had quit.
People aged 60 and over were the ones who had the best chance of giving up smoking.
Haypp Head of External Affairs Markus Lindblad revealed that, after following UK government guidance, people who reduce the amount they smoke are more likely to stop smoking eventually.
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"Particularly if they are using licensed nicotine-containing product alternatives," he said, as per Yahoo News.
"The national harm reduction strategy, where the switch to alternative, less harmful, nicotine products such as nicotine pouches is encouraged, has been key to the UK being one of the most successful countries in Europe in reducing the number of smokers."
The survey also found that an equal amount of men and women in Brighton have quit smoking.
As for those smoking while pregnant, well, that has reduced by 72 per cent in a massive win for parents and babies in the region.
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Lindblad told The Telegraph that the new ONS data is surprising.
"It’s interesting to see that a large proportion of UK smokers are still gaining some extra time away from work to enjoy a cigarette, with some wasting 20 minutes or more every day," he said.
"And while it would save employers one week per year of working hours, a switch to the less harmful pouches could give a smoker many more years of life."