OBESITY and smoking are among the biggest killers in Fareham and Gosport, a new report has revealed.

Four out of ten people in Fareham are overweight or clinically obese - and that figure rises to 50 per cent for the population of Gosport.

Deaths from skin cancer in the area are 23 per cent higher than the national average and cancer, including lung cancer caused mostly by smoking, is one of the largest identified killers.

One in three people in Gosport smoke. The number is one in five in Fareham.

The findings are contained in a report in to the general health and wellbeing of the neighbouring Hampshire towns.

Produced by Fareham and Gosport Primary Care Trust, the 58-page document is the first comprehensive picture of the health needs of the 188,000-strong population.

It comes as a national report attacks the government, food industry and advertisers for failing to act to stop rising levels of obesity.

A Commons Health Select Comm-ittee report published today says obesity costs England £3.7 billion a year and warns levels of diabetes, cancer and heart disease will rise.

It says that if present trends continue, obesity will soon surpass smoking as the greatest cause of premature loss of life.

The local document, entitled How Healthy Are We In Fareham and Gosport?, was presented at a public meeting of the trust last night and will become the basis for the provision of future health care.

It makes several recommendations, including promoting a healthy diet comprising five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, increasing physical activity and reducing the uptake of smoking among children.

Contributor Dr Noreen Kickham, the trust's co-director of public health, said: "The major causes of death and disease in Fareham and Gosport are very similar to those in the rest of the country.

"Eighty per cent of lung cancer is caused by smoking and we need to continue awareness. We have a well established smoking strategy - we'll be supporting smokers to give up.

"We also need to change people's attitudes towards skin exposure."

Using standardised figures of disease and mortality rates from April 2000 to March 2003 the report takes into account the population's age structure.

Life expectancy (81 to 83 years) is highest in Sarisbury and Warsash and lowest (75 to 77) in Hardway and Forton in Gosport.

The largest number of smokers live in Gosport and nearly two thirds of people in Sarisbury, Lee-on-the-Solent, Portchester and Bridgemary are overweight.

Among the facts and figures contained in the report are that children under five in Gosport are most likely to have had dental problems; most suicides and deaths from accidents occur in Leesland; and most accident and emergency admissions come from Gosport town centre and Bridgemary.

But not all is doom and gloom.

You are 68 per cent less likely to suffer bronchitis and emphysema and 38 per cent less likely to have asthma than the national average.

Incidents of breast cancer are three per cent below the national average while cases of prostate cancer are only five per cent higher than average. Cervical cancer is also very rare.

Copies of the report will be available to view shortly on the PCT's website www.farehamandgosportpct.nhs.uk