The number of people using smoking cessation services fell by 150,000 in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Promotion Administration (HPA) data showed.
Agency figures showed that 491,127 people sought such services in 2015.
The number rose to more than 750,000 in 2018 before dropping to 480,000 in 2020.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
A similar trend can been seen in the US, where data from the American Psychological Association suggest that the number of people calling the smoking cessation hotline in 2020 was the lowest since 2007.
The administration offers subsidies to people who want to access medicines to help quit smoking, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said on Sunday.
The subsidies have been funded by the health and welfare surcharge on tobacco since 2002, providing up to NT$200 per service for people to quit smoking by taking drugs prescribed by a doctor, he said.
The latest adjustment to the policy waives the cost of the drugs, which were used by an average of 93,000 people every year over the past three years, meaning that people who seek the service can save about NT$1,200 per year, Wu said.
Nicotine could alter the nervous system in the long term, and cause reliance on and desire for tobacco products, Cathay General Hospital Department of Chest Medicine director Wu Chin-tung (吳錦桐) said.
Nicotine gums and skin patches are used as nicotine replacements to help reduce withdrawal effects that might occur when people stop smoking, he said.
About half of the smokers who quit do so without the help of such medicines, he added.
The most important factor in quitting smoking is determination and having a plan, Wu Chin-tung said, adding that the overall success rate of the smoking cessation service was 30 percent.
Administration official Liu Chia-hsiu (劉家秀) quoted the WHO as saying that smoking exacerbates respiratory diseases and raises the possibility of spreading pathogens from the hands to the mouth.
Liu called on smokers to try to quit smoking during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the disease can increase the risk of developing severe symptoms or dying.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS