CDC: Evocative Campaign Motivates Smokers to Quit

The Tips from Former Smokers television campaign, which features true stories of former smokers living with the unfortunate consequences of their past habit, appears to motivate smokers to seek information through quitlines and the Internet, according to a report published in the Sept. 20 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
THURSDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The Tips from Former Smokers (Tips) television campaign, which features true stories of former smokers living with the unfortunate consequences of their past habit, appears to motivate smokers to seek information through quitlines and the Internet, according to a report published in the Sept. 20 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
In an effort to assess the Tips campaign's impact, Stephen Babb, M.P.H., of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues analyzed the number of weekly calls to the national telephone quitline and the number of weekly new visitors to the Tips website during the four weeks prior to the campaign, the 16 weeks of the campaign's duration, and the four weeks that followed.
Calls and website visits increased by 75 percent during the campaign and quickly fell to almost pre-campaign levels afterward. The researchers surmised that the campaign inspired an additional 151,536 callers and nearly 2.8 million unique web visitors above non-campaign levels. Furthermore, weekly call volumes fluctuated wildly, falling 38 percent during the six weeks when televised ads did not run.
"These results suggest that emotionally evocative tobacco education media campaigns featuring graphic images of the health effects of smoking can increase quitline calls and website visits and that these campaigns' effects decrease rapidly once they are discontinued," the authors write.

Fort Collins smoking ban could extend outdoors

Lighting up a cigarette in public might soon become even less welcome in Fort Collins.
City officials are considering expanding no-smoking rules to include outdoor dining areas and bar patios.
Smoking also would be prohibited within 20 feet of an outdoor dining area under the proposed regulation, and banned at Transfort bus benches and other transit facilities, such as MAX stations.
During a recent City Council work session on the proposal, most council members said they support applying the smoking ban to outdoor eating areas. They also would consider regulating electronic cigarettes and banning smoking in parks, on trails and in heavily used pedestrian areas such as Old Town Square.
Mayor pro tem Gerry Horak said many people don’t want to be around cigarette smoke, even in an outdoor setting.
“I think the society has changed,” he said. “The society here in town is ready for it.”

Smokers earn 20% less than non-smokers...

Smokers earn 20 per cent less than non-smokers, new research has revealed.
However, people who used to smoke but who gave up more than a year ago earn an average of seven per cent more than those who never smoked.
Economists Julie Hotchkiss and Melinda Pitts, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, also discovered that the wages of social smokers and people who smoke a pack a day are equally badly affected by their habit.
Therefore, NBC News reports that it is the fact that a person smokes, rather than how much they smoke, that is important.
The economists also found that levels of productivity are not the cause of the pay gap – their research showed that people who smoke heavily are no less productive than people who do not smoke at all.
They suggest that the main reason for the pay gap is that non-smokers tend to be more highly educated than smokers. Cigarette News Online.
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Licence for smokers

SMOKERS should be made to carry a smart card to buy cigarettes, cancer experts say. In a move backed by Tasmania's Cancer Council, two academics are pushing for the card in a bid to reduce smoking rates. Roger Magnusson, of the University of Sydney's Law School, and David Currow, of the Cancer Institute NSW, say it would cut teenage smoking rates. Retailers would have to check the smart card licence to verify every pack sold is bought by an adult, the authors write in today's Medical Journal of Australia. Professor Magnusson and Professor Currow say the card could collect data smokers could use to help them quit. Cancer Council of Tasmania chief executive Penny Egan said yesterday any move that could reduce the state's high smoking rate was worth considering. Noting Tasmania had the country's highest smoking rate, Ms Egan said: "Quitting smoking is of the most important things an individual can do to reduce the risk of cancer." Tasmanian Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne is considering banning smoking for people born after 2000. A motion supporting the ban, based on an idea floated in the Mercury in May last year by Jon Berrick from the National University of Singapore, has passed the Upper House. Despite smoking being banned for those under 18, the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found 31 per cent of the tobacco smoked by adolescents was bought from retailers or online. More info about cigarettes click here.

Anti-smoking laws ‘unrealistic’

Cape Town - Township tavern owners have rejected the government’s latest anti-smoking regulations as unrealistic, including the ban on lighting up within 10m of building entrances.

“Ten metres from my place would be over the road and in somebody else’s yard,” says David Sawula, owner of Gugulethu’s popular Popza’s Place.

“A lot of the places in our township will face the same problem because of the density and overcrowding,” Sawula said.

The Health Department regulation states: “Pollution from tobacco smoke will be further reduced by restricting smoking in certain outdoor areas. Smoking will be moved away from entrances to buildings and smoking will be restricted in sports stadia, railway platforms, bus stops, alfresco dining areas, etc.”

 

Sawula, a member of the Township Liquor Industry Association (Tolia), said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s attempt to push through the regulations would also lead to a loss of jobs.

Celebrity Activists Who Have Smoked Pot: Morgan Freeman, Oliver Stone And More

As the movement to legalize marijuana gains traction, some environmental activists and celebrities are throwing in their support for legalization, while others have simply admitted to using pot at some point in their lives.
Many celebrities and politicians have publicly come forward as either current or reformed pot smokers. There are some, like Paul McCartney, who have reportedly left those days behind them. At the age of 69, McCartney told Rolling Stone that he smoked his share already. "Enough's enough," he said. On the other end of the spectrum are those still rolling, like famous director Oliver Stone. “It can be done legally, safely, healthy,” Stone insisted in a recent Associated Press interview.

48 hours after ending Tobacco use, health benefits begin

“Within 48 hours of quitting smoking, health benefits begin,” said Dr. Steven Leers, a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery. “Blood pressure decreases. Pulse rate drops. The body temperature of hands and feet increases. Carbon monoxide levels in the blood return to normal. The chance of a heart attack decreases. Nerve endings regrow. There’s an increase in the ability to taste and smell.”
Dr. Leers is an advocate for not smoking cigarette or other products. Research has linked smoking to cancer, vascular disease, stroke and lung disease.
“As a vascular surgeon, I’ve seen the damage done to veins and arteries from tobacco use,” said Dr. Leers. “Nicotine speeds up the heart and causes the body to release fat and cholesterol into the blood. All of these are related to vascular disease.”
In addition, smoking accelerates the hardening and narrowing of arteries. Smokers are two to four times more likely to develop blood clots.