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Even More Reasons To Quit Smoking
A strong anti tobacco campaign combined with a tax increase on
tobacco products has remarkably reduced the number of smoking
individuals in California and Massachusetts in a limited span when
compared to other States around the US.
The Minnesota Heart Health Program reduced approximately 40 percent
of the community smokers it came in contact with at various
organized meets. A combined school-based curriculum was also the
focal point of these quit smoking agendas. Later on, a preliminary
report by the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST)
indicated that per capita cigarette consumption was 7 percent less
in the 17 ASSIST States. Limiting the appeal of tobacco products to
young people involves both restricting tobacco advertising and
promotions and effective countering of pro-tobacco messages to reach
large segments of the population quickly and efficiently.
Mass media being the definite and ultimate tool for tobacco control,
television, radio, magazines and other media tools are used to
propagate information and educational messages to large targeted
audiences, build up public support for tobacco control programs and
policies, reinforce social norms supporting the nonuse of tobacco,
and counteract the pro-use messages and images of tobacco marketing
and public relations campaigns.
Reducing The Appeal Of Smoking
An essential element for reducing tobacco’s appeal to youth is to
change the current social trend that accepts tobacco use. This
change requires countering the campaigns worth billions of dollars
for tobacco advertising and promotion that lure young pre-mature
minds with misleading images about tobacco. Arizona, California, and
Massachusetts have paid counter-advertising campaigns to vaporize
such glorified appeal generated for tobacco use to bring to the fore
the lurking dangers just beneath the sheath of an inhaled puff. They
correctly spread among young people messages about the negative
effects of tobacco use on health, performance, and appearance.
Preliminary results reveal that the media programs have reached
youth, adults, and multicultural populations in those States and
have achieved their program objectives.
Over the past several years, new technology has acknowledged that
there is no such thing as a “safe cigarette.” Proposed and debated
issues have contemplated the reduction of tar and nicotine levels in
tobacco products, even considered varying the proportions of
tobacco-specific nitrosamines and specific additives used in other
tobacco products.
Whenever the demand for cigarettes decreases its price increases. An
increase in the excise tax on tobacco products reduces the rate of
use of both cigarettes and spit tobacco among adults and youth. A 10
percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces overall smoking
among adults by a dramatic 4 percent.
For every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, there is a
7.6 to 12 percent decrease in teen smoking participation rates as
youth participation responds more strongly to price.)
And some more…
- March 2006: Smoking Ban - Smoking in Public Places in Saskatchewan
and public places and Workplaces in New Brunswick and Manitoba
- Health Canada's Tobacco Control Programme invites stakeholders
engaged in tobacco control issues in Canada to share their views
comprising the second phase of the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy
(FTCS).
- The World Conference on Tobacco or Health was held from July
12-15, 2006 in Washington DC
- Released in May 2004, a report reveals that smoking causes
diseases in nearly every organ of the body. It expands on the list
of illnesses and conditions linked to cigarette smoking that was
discussed in the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking.
- NIDA InfoFacts: Findings for high school youth indicate that 25.9
percent of 8th-graders, 38.9 percent of 10th-graders, and 50.0
percent of 12th-graders had already smoked cigarettes when asked in
2005. These figures were lower for all three grades from 2004 data,
and for 8th-graders and 12th-graders, the decreases were
statistically significant.
- American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Tobacco use is the single
largest cause of preventable premature mortality in the United
States. It also represents an enormous cost burden to the nation.
- A series of advertisements made by Contract Advertising also
appeared in Indian Express and Loksatta regarding Passive Smoking.
Too often, smokers endanger the lives of non-smokers by smoking in
their presence. Recently, studies have shown that such second hand
smoke can also raise the risk of contracting cancer significantly.
The danger is especially grave for children of parents who smoke.
They are more likely to suffer from pneumonia or bronchitis in the
first two years of life than children who live in smoke-free
households. Several studies have also established a link with sudden
infant death syndrome (SIDS). Children of parents who smoke have a
twofold-increased risk of dying of SIDS.
- Australia's National Tobacco Strategy [Australian Government
Department of Health and Ageing] is a policy framework for the
Australian Government and State and Territory Governments to work
together and in collaboration with non-government agencies to
improve health and to reduce the social costs caused by tobacco. The
links below provide information on how to quit and the effectiveness
of various ways to stop smoking.
- Ontario smokers need more government help to quit smoking - Public
awareness campaigns, raising tobacco taxes, workplace and indoor
public smoking ban are keys to butting out
- Tobacco use is the biggest preventable cause of death and disease
in Ontario. It kills 16,000 Ontarians each year. The government is
investing in a comprehensive tobacco-control strategy to improve the
health of Ontarians.
- “Should there be a total ban on smoking of cigarettes? A forum in
India witnesses most of the replies in favor of the total ban
- Smoking is known to be the principal avoidable cause of premature
deaths in the UK.
- Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness and
premature death in the UK. Just over a quarter - 26 per cent - of
adults in Wales are smokers. But 27 per cent of adults in Wales are
ex-smokers.
- Statement on Release of U.S. Surgeon General Report on Health
Consequences of Secondhand Smoke.
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