• 11/11/2007
  • web-based article
  • staff
  • Huliq.com

According to the report, represented in the U.S. on the part of CDC – national Center for Disease Control and Prevention in November 9, 2007, the decline in smoking rates during the recent years has stalled, thus turning the problem into a real concern for the federal health officials.

It happened so that the positive results of smoking rate decline have ceased to please authorities involved in anti-smoking campaigns and programs since 2004. Among serious reasons of this process Jia-Rui Chong from Los Angeles Times named reduced spendings on anti-tobacco campaigns and bigger marketing budgets from cigarette companies.

As the director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health Dr. Matt McKenna said, “What is happening doesn’t have to happen. With appropriate support and efforts and counter-marketing, tens of thousands of people don’t have to die.”

In McKenna’s estimates a 0.1% decline in 2006 doesn’t play a significant role in the solution of this vital problem, which takes lives of 480000 people each year and results in tobacco-related diseases.

“Among smokers who already have a smoking-related chronic disease, those who quit have a lower risk for death from the disease than those who continue smoking,” states the CDC.

Marc Kaufman from The Washington Post reported that statistic data collected during the last 40 years of researches have shown unexpected and discouraging results. It is the first time since the researches have been carried out, that smoking rates have stalled for three years and have levelled off for that long.

According to CDC report, cigarette producing companies have recently increased their marketing budgets in contrast to anti-smoking campaigns, which don’t spend enough money and efforts on influensing the mentality of people and on enouraging a healthy life-style.

Smoking is a harmful process and this is an irrevocable fact. “Anytime we are not seeing a decline, it’s a cause of real concern to us,” says Corinne Husten, head of the epidemiology branch of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

But anyway, no matter what measures are taken by the government to put an end to this disasterous habit, the latter seems to fail in its promises to reach no more than 12% of U.S. smoking adults in 2010.

A significant anti-smoking activity is reported to being carried out in West Virginia on the part of The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In accordance with Eric Eyre, West Virginia turnes out to be the leader in the nation in the percentage of women who smoke during pregnancy. The state also has the highest number of younger adults who smoke.

“There’s no question we have to increase what we’re putting into those programs,” said Don Perdue, D-Wayne, chairman of the state House Health and Human Resources Committee. “We have to respond to slow those rates down in a meaningful way. We have to view tobacco use as the public health menace that it is.”

West Virginia’s tobacco-prevention division has recommended that lawmakers increase tobacco taxes. According to CDC high tobacco prices will not only keep smokers, especially children, from buying cigarettes. It is the best way of raising anti-tobacco funding which, as the studies have shown, is not at its best in comarison with late 90’s.

As CDC says in the report, anti-tobacco campaigns include media campaigns, cessation programs, studies and administration.

Besides, Eyre’s report introduces the sum of about $229 million which is spent on medical care related to illnesses caused by smoking and spit tobacco use.

“Those costs are avertable,” says Terry Pechacek, associate director for science at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health in Atlanta. “The loss in productivity in West Virginia because of premature deaths is almost $1 billion a year. It’s people taken out of the work force prematurely because of tobacco-related deaths.”

Thus, it turns out to be more profitable for the government to finance anti-smoking programs than to face real expenses on medical care and treatment of those who have fallen victims of this dreadful habit.