MORE than a fifth of adults in Bradford still smoke - despite 800 people dying across the district because of the habit every year.

The statistics were released to coincide with No Smoking Day tomorrow as public health officials announce a new partnership with Airedale Hospital to start a campaign helping elective surgery patients have shorter and safer hospital stays by stopping smoking and healing quicker.

As part of a new initiative, patients going to the hospital in Steeton, Keighley, for consultations ahead of elective surgical procedures will now be advised how the district's stop smoking service can boost their recovery.

Even quitting for only a few days before surgery can help.

Joanne Nykol, tobacco lead for Bradford Council, said smokers were four times more likely to successfully quit with support than quitting alone.

She said: "No-one wants to be in hospital longer than they planned to and no-one wants to be readmitted because of complications. Quitting not only helps the patient, but also saves the NHS money on additional care."

Karl Mainprize, medical director at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust said: “Smokers need more anaesthetic and have a higher risk of anaesthetic complications because they need extra oxygen causing their hearts to work harder.

"Not many people know your wounds heal more slowly and bones don’t knit together as fast if you smoke."

The number of smokers in the Bradford district has fallen since 2010 but 20.2 per cent of the district's over 18 population are still hooked on the habit - a figure that is two per cent higher than the average for England.

Yorkshire Cancer Research is also warning people to give up tobacco as it reveals its latest figures of smoking-linked cancers. It estimates about 300 cancer cases related to smoking were diagnosed in the Bradford area in 2010.

Dr Kathryn Scott, head of research and innovation at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said: “Tobacco is the biggest cause of preventable death in the world. In Yorkshire particularly, we are extremely concerned about the impact of smoking on the number of cases of cancer diagnosed."

Smoking can lead to 16 different types of cancer, the most common being lung, laryngeal, oesophageal and oral. The habit is also estimated to cause more than a third of bladder cancers, more than a quarter of pancreatic cancers and more than a fifth of stomach cancers.

A spokesman for the Bradford NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which run the Bradford Beating Diabetes and Bradford’s Healthy Hearts campaigns, also highlighted that giving up smoking was a major factor in reducing the risk of developing diabetes or heart disease.

“If you are a smoker with diabetes, quitting smoking will benefit your health right away – people with diabetes who quit have better control of their blood sugar levels.

"Giving up smoking is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your heart health. That’s because people who smoke are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who don’t smoke.”

There’s a free One Day Quit tool for no smoking day available at quitnow.smokefree.nhs.uk/onedayquit. Bradford’s stop smoking service can be contacted on 01274 437700.