One fifth of Oxfordshire adults are smokers whose habit puts financial strain on county businesses and an added burden on the health service, according to figures released today.

A report published by the South East Public Health Observatory shows that 20 per cent of county residents aged over 18 have a nicotine habit.

Although the number is less than both the national rate of 25 per cent and the South East rate of 21 per cent, it still means 96,500 county adults light up on a regular basis.

The report also highlights contrasts in smoking prevalence in different areas of Oxfordshire.

While 17.5 per cent of the population of South Oxfordshire have a habit, in Cherwell -- covering Banbury, Kidlington and Bicester -- almost one quarter, 24 per cent, smoke.

In Oxford, 22 per cent use tobacco, in West Oxfordshire 19.5 per cent have a habit, and in the Vale of the White Horse, 18 per cent are smokers.

Maggie Dent, health promotion manager for the North Oxfordshire Partnership Primary Care Trust, said: "Obviously we do have some areas of high deprivation up here in Banbury and the correlation of low income families and social-economic factors are linked to smoking.

"We have a county-wide smoking advice service and also work very closely with Cherwell Vale District Council health promotion team as well, while smoking cessation workers at every GP surgery do a tremendous amount of work with people who want to give up.

"We're also doing a lot of work in factories in the area, setting up workshops to help workers give up, and we do a lot of ad hoc promotions, particularly around No Smoking Day in March.

"School nurses do a lot with young people and we hope to appoint a young person's smoking adviser by September, but there's a lot of peer pressure in schools for young people to start smoking, and then it becomes difficult to get them to give up."

The SEPHO report also highlights the financial expense smoking has on businesses in south-east England.

Cigarette breaks account for 4.9 per cent of lost time, at a cost of £5.2m.

Smoking-related illness, including conditions like circulatory disease, heart disease and lung cancer, also lead to nearly five million sick days a year in the region.

Tom Endean, of Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, said: "It's clear that smoking-related illness and cigarette breaks have a huge impact on lost time and illness in businesses, which in turn has a detrimental effect on profit.

"Although smoking is generally seen as something that is becoming less socially acceptable, businesses in the area should take these recent results seriously.

"The vast majority of businesses in the area are small and medium sized organisations for whom lost time and increased costs are a heavy burden to bear.

"We realise most businesses find encouraging employees to quit smoking a difficult task. However, we're aware of some companies in Thames Valley who do offer incentive schemes to employees to encourage them to stop smoking, which we applaud."

According to SEPHO, smoking also adds strain on hospitals in south-east England, because 5.9 per cent of all outpatients need care for illnesses caused by their habit.

In Oxfordshire, this means more than 30,000 people see consultants at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital, Radcliffe Infirmary, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, and the Horton, Banbury, because of smoking. No one from the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals was available to comment.