60% Of EU Citizens Support Stronger Tobacco Control Measures - New Survey

European Commission - Press Release

World No Tobacco Day 2012:
EU-wide Survey Shows That A Majority Of EU Citizens Supports Stronger Tobacco Control Measures

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Brussels, 30 May 2012 - On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, the European Commission publishes an EU study on attitudes towards tobacco. On average, 60% of citizens support measures to make tobacco less visible and attractive, such as keeping tobacco products out of sight in shops or curbing the use of attractive flavours and colours. At the same time, other figures give cause for concern: 28% of EU citizens aged 15 and over smoke, and 70% of the smokers and ex-smokers took up the habit before the age of 18.

Burning Away Their Lives!
Tobacco Is The Single Largest Cause Of Avoidable
Death In The EU. It Accounts For Around 700.000
Premature Deaths Each Year In The EU.

European Commissioner in charge of Health & Consumer Policy, John Dalli, said: "I am deeply concerned about the fact that most Europeans start smoking in their early youth, before their 18th birthday.This is why, as I stressed at a meeting today with Dr. Nikogosian, Head of the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control's Secretariat, I am committed to ensuring that Europe lives up to its international commitments on regulating tobacco products, including reducing cigarettes' appeal to young people. It is in this spirit that the European Commission is currently shaping a proposal to revise the Tobacco Products Directive".

Commenting on some positive results of the survey, Commissioner Dalli added "I am encouraged by citizens' broad support for stronger tobacco control measures. It is also reassuring to see a substantial fall in the proportion of people exposed to tobacco smoke. This shows that strict regulations on smoking in public places and awareness raising action about the advantages of not smoking – such as the EU's "Ex-Smokers are unstoppable" campaign – are delivering results".

Findings from the EU survey on attitudes of Europeans towards tobacco include :

• The number of cigarettes smoked on a daily basis is 14.2, which represents a slight decrease from the previous (2009) survey (14.4 cigarettes/day)
• Half of the EU population has never smoked : the prevalence has not evolved in the past three years
• 61% of current smokers have already tried to quit smoking, including 1 in 5 in the year prior to the survey
• Although there has been a 17% fall in the proportion of people exposed to tobacco smoke in restaurants and bars, 14% of EU citizens still reported that they were exposed to smoking in restaurants and 28% inside cafés and bars in the last 6 months.
• 73% of EU citizens are in favour of introducing security features to curb illicit trade of cigarettes, even if it makes them more expensive. 
• 33% of smokers and ex-smokers in the EU say health warnings on tobacco packs have/have had an impact on their attitudes and behaviour towards smoking.

[VIDEO]

Slow Painful Death Of Bryan Curtis,  

A Smoker

Background

Tobacco is the single largest cause of avoidable death in the EU. It accounts for around 700.000 premature deaths each year in the EU.

In order to reduce tobacco consumption throughout the European Union, the Commission continues to pursue a comprehensive tobacco control policy.

A wide range of mechanisms, activities, and initiatives including tobacco control legislation, prevention and cessation activities serve to maintain and strengthen the tobacco control policy.

The review of the 2001 Directive on Tobacco Products is on-going and the Commission intends to table its proposal in the second half of 2012. The EU and all Member States have ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which entered into force in February 2005.

A Council Recommendation on Smoke-Free Environments, adopted in 2009, calls on Member States to adopt and implement laws to protect citizens from exposure to tobacco smoke in enclosed public places, workplaces, and public transport. It also calls for the enhancement of smoke-free laws with supporting measures to protect children, encourage efforts to quit smoking and display pictorial warnings on cigarette packages.

As part of its awareness-raising campaign, the Commission launched its "Ex-smokers are unstoppable" campaign in 2011. The campaign is now entering a new phase, building on the success of its first year. A renewed programme adheres to the original strategy that “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” should effect change by shifting the emphasis from the negative health consequences associated with smoking towards the positive benefits of becoming an ‘ex-smoker’, thus motivating men and women across Europe to quit smoking.

For More Information:

Eurobarometer:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/eurobarometers/index_en.htm

Tobacco policy website:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/tobacco/policy/index_en.htm

Ex-smokers are unstoppable campaign:

http://www.exsmokers.eu/

Second-Hand Smoking Kills 600,000 Annually

Study published in UK medical journal Lancet finds that more than half a million people die a year from 'passive' smoke. The study finds that a third of those killed annually by passive smoking are children [EPA].

Second-hand tobacco smoke kills upwards of 600,000 people every year, nearly a third of them children, according to a global assessment in The Lancet, a British medical journal.

The Best Way To Be A Wicked Parent!!

 The findings, released on Friday in the first ever global study, indicate that unlike "lifestyle" diseases, which stem largely from individual choice, the victims of passive smoking pay the ultimate price for the health-wrecking behaviour of others, especially family members.

Among non-smokers worldwide, 40 per cent of children, 35 per cent of women and 33 percent of men were exposed to second-hand smoke in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available across the 192 countries examined.

In addition to 5.1 deaths caused by active smoking, the final death toll from tobacco for 2004 was more than 5.7 million people, the study concluded. Nearly half of the passive-smoking deaths occurred in women, with the rest divided almost equally between children and men, according to the study. Some 60 per cent of the deaths were caused by heart disease and 30 per cent by lower respiratory infections, followed by asthma and lung cancer. All told, passive smoking accounted for one per cent of worldwide mortality in 2004.

What A Mother!!!

Adult deaths caused by second-hand tobacco were spread evenly across the spectrum of poor-to-rich nations.  But for children, poverty made things much worse, the study found. Adult deaths were spread evenly across the spectrum of poor-to-rich nations. The adult-to-child ratio of deaths in high-income Europe, for example, was 35,388 to 71 while the ratio in Africa was nearly reversed: 9,514 to 43,375.  "Children's exposure to second-hand smoke most likely happens at home," the researchers noted. "Infectious diseases and tobacco seems to be a deadly combination."

The tragedy of children impacted by others' smoke is even greater when calculated in years of life lost, rather than lives lost. One reason twice as many non-smoking women die is simply because they outnumber their male counterparts by 60 percent. But in the developing world, they are also 50 percent more likely to be exposed to harmful smoke. Enacting smoke-free laws for public spaces could significantly reduce passive smoking mortality and health care costs, said Annette Pruss-Ustun, the lead researcher.

Currently, only a small fraction - 7.4 per cent - of the world population lives in places with stringent smoke-free laws, and even in these jurisdictions, compliance is spotty. Earlier research has shown that where laws are enforced, exposure to second-hand smoke in high-risk settings such as bars and restaurants is cut by 90 per cent.  Anti-smoking regulations also lower cigarette consumption, and improve one's chances of kicking the habit.

The researchers recommend fully applying the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which includes high taxes on tobacco products, banning tobacco advertising and the use of nondescript packaging. "There can be no question that the 1.2 billion smokers in the world are exposing billions of non-smokers to second-hand smoke, a disease-causing indoor pollutant," noted Heather Wipfli and Jonathan Samet, of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.  

  "Broad initiatives are needed to motivate families to put their own policies into place to reduce exposure ... at home."

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--Nigeria Today Online

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IMPORTANT NOTICE

 Were You Once A Smoker? Or Spent Time Regularly With A Smoker, Or In An Environment Where People Or Someone Smoked Often? You May Consider Undertaking A Mammogram Check Up   


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