Cracking down on smoking is a top Government priority with strict deadlines. A target has been set to cut the smoking population from 25 per cent to 21 per cent by 2010.

Parliament has already introduced a smoking ban in NHS and Government buildings such as town halls and council offices.

To help these organisations deal with the smoking ban and to encourage increasing numbers of public sector staff to kick the habit, the NHS has recently begun a workforce initiative.

Stop smoking advisers are going into workplaces to offer support and therapies to staff.

Workforce initiatives are currently in full swing throughout Bexley. The council is offering sessions to the Fire Brigade and workers in Erith Job Centre among others.

Lewisham is also running an initiative. Wearside Depot in Catford, a council transport service, with a largely male workforce, appealed to Lewisham Primary Care Trust to hold a smoking clinic.

Employees have been given time off to visit weekly session, where stop smoking adviser Claire Goldie asks why they smoke and why they want to quit. She also illustrates the risks of smoking.

Statistics currently state 28 per cent of men are smokers and they are at risk from smoking-related illnesses. A quarter of men in the UK are killed by such diseases every year compared with an eighth of women. Also, 40 per cent of impotent men are smokers.

At the clinics advisers take a carbon monoxide rating from the smokers and prescribe Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) as an option for quitting. The clinics also show how important lifestyle changes are to giving up. According to Claire changing habits are just as important as the NRT.

She said: "Smoking infringes on all parts of a smokers' life. At the sessions we work on how to reprogramme lifestyles to remove triggers which can start cravings.

"Having a tea or coffee in the morning, for example, are routine actions which can cause a craving. Changing this routine can help a smoker fighting cravings."

Jamie Fisher, who attended a Bromley stop smoking course, agrees changing habits can help kick the habit.

He said: "In the morning I go for a run to take my mind off smoking and after dinner I wash up straight away so I don't give myself time to get cravings."

For more information, visit the website givingupsmoking.co.uk