Wanjiku Unlimited

  • Are Anti-Smoking Campaigns Working?

    Posted: August 5, 2008, 12:01 pm by Shiko-Msa
    Pictures Courtesy of BBC It seems smokers the world over are persons under siege. There are anti-smoking campaigns upon anti-smoking campaigns, warnings, heavy taxes and rising prices. And with good reason. We are all in agreement that smoking indeed does harm your health.

    For many years, smokers have only had to contend with a faintly written message on the packet. These often stark warnings vary from country to country and here are some examples. Cigarette smoking may be harmful to your health. Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer. Smoking clogs your arteries. 85% of lung cancers are caused by smoking. 80% of lung cancer victims die within 3 years. Smoking is lethal. Smoking makes your skin age. Smoking damages sperm and reduces fertility. Smoking can cause a slow and painful death – and so on and so forth. The warnings are endless.

    Here in Kenya, rules are getting tougher by the day. Smokers now cannot buy a single stick and they have to go smoking in designated areas in far flung corners of town. Other countries have taken the battle against the stick a notch higher with companies being required to print shocking graphic images on the packets depicting the effects of cigarette smoking. Imagine buying your favorite brand of cigarettes only to be confronted by any of the following gruesome images on the packet:

    • Diseased Lungs
    • Rotten Teeth
    • Gangrenous Toes
    • Damaged hearts
    • A fetus in the womb
    • A dying man in an oxygen mask
    • A coughing child
    • A limp cigarette signifying impotence

    The images are very disturbing. I mean you do not want to see a fetus on a cigarette pack. The graphics are meant to shock the user and evoke mental images of him/herself ending up really sick or in the case of ladies, giving birth to a sick or deformed baby. In short they’re meant to make smoking less glamorous especially to the young. The strategy has worked in countries where it has been operating for some years.

    So smoking is harmful to your health. But so are many other things. Beer, fast foods, Let’s take fast foods for example. They may not have 4000 chemicals in a single plate but what about their high percentage of fat and salt and the subsequent effect on cholesterol and high blood pressure? Is it not fair then to expect fast food restaurants to have pictures of people who have been affected by prolonged fast food consumption?

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