Smokers take 7.5 Weeks Extra Leave Per Year

Smoking breaks during office hours now cost the Irish economy up to €5m per day in productivity according to the Office of Tobacco Control.

For every staff member who takes a smoking break every hour, a company looses over 6 hours productivity per week per smoker,” says Brenda Sweeney Director of Allen Carr Easyway Clinics. “That is 7.5 weeks of productivity per smoker per year and that doesn’t include absenteeism due to smoking related illnesses.”

“According to Dr Michael Boland, chairperson of the Office of Tobacco Control, the majority of smokers ‘want to quit’ and employers should actively assist employees who want to give up,” says Brenda.

“Investing time and resources in smoking cessation programmes is a win-win situation for both employers and employees. The medium to long-term benefits are significant.”

Many corporations in Ireland have chosen Allen Carr’s method to assist employees who wish to stop smoking, including Waterford City Council, AXA and ESB. In 2008, five seminars were organized for ESB staff across the country with almost 100 attendees in total. A recent follow-up survey indicated that 70% of those that attended the seminar remain off cigarettes.

 

Easyway is offering 10% discount for corporate clinics booked for January, February and March. For more information, contact 1890 379929 or visit www.easyway.ie.

Can Obama Quit? Yes He Can with Easyway!

Allen Carr Easyway may yet be holding a clinic in the White House as it may be Obama’s next port of call in his effort to quit his habit.

“Obama is due to become president of the USA on January 20^th so time is ticking away for him to kick his smoking addiction for good. He has tried other methods but none have worked as he is still smoking. So our clinics in the States have offered to help him overcome his addiction before taking up office,” explains Brenda Sweeney, director of Allen Carr’s Easyway in Ireland.  The White House is a smoke free zone since First Lady Hillary Clinton made it a rule when she resided there. Perhaps more to the point, Obama’s wife, Michelle, reportedly insisted he renounce cigarettes as a condition for allowing him to run for president.  “Obviously if Obama accepts the offer it will be done in the strictest confidence on a one to one basis,” says Brenda.

In a country where cigarettes are responsible for one in five deaths and smoking costs tens of billions of dollars in health care, the president-elect has also been under pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit.

Available in Ireland since 1998, Allen Carr’s Easyway is without doubt the most successful method of helping people to stop smoking in the world. Since 1983 over eight million copies of Allen Carr’s Easyway to stop smoking books have been sold and thousands of smokers have attended clinics of which there are now over 70 worldwide.

 

Other celebrity clients of Easyway include Sir Richard Branson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Goldie Hawn, Dave Stewart, Bruce Oldfield, Julie Christie, Ruby Wax, Johnny Cash, Gian Luca Vialli, Barry Sheen, Kerry Packer, Susannah York, Marie Helvin, John Sessions, Lord & Lady Bonham Carter, David Cameron, Lady Astor, Leslie Grantham, Dennis Waterman, Rula Lenska, John Cougar Mellencamp, Rick Parfitt, Martin Clunes, Lisa Stansfield, Robson Green, Vicky Binns, George Melly, Derek Jameson, Sean Bean, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Linda Robson…and many others who wish to remain anonymous.

 

In Ireland, companies which have introduced the Easyway Stop Smoking Clinics for their employees include ESB, AXA, Waterford City Council, AGF Irish Life Holdings, Project Management, Aer Rianta and Musgraves Supervalue.

 

Allen Carr Easyway can be contacted on 1890 379929 and website is www.easyway.ie.

Save for the 2011 Rugby World Cup

It’s 2009 and my new years resolution is to start saving for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand which is in approximately 1,000 days.  I smoked 30 a day which  would normally cost me €12 per day. Therefore I intend to save €12,000 by the World Cup. Another friend of mine has quit since the New Year and he is also doing the same.

I think this is a real tangible way to demonstrate the financial savings of being a non smoker.

As it happened I had bad sinusitis over the Christmas Holidays however I truly feel that it could of developed into something worse if I was still smoking.

Merv