Smoking Out Nicotine Addiction: What’s Working in the War on Cigarettes
With CVS Pharmacy’s recent announcement that cigarettes and other tobacco containing products will no longer be sold in its stores, Real World Health Care has been crunching the numbers on the success of anti-tobacco efforts and reviewing recent advances in smoking cessation. Here’s what we’ve found:
- #1. Smoking still holds the unfortunate distinction of causing more preventable deaths than anything else.
- 8 million. That’s how many lives have been saved by 50 years of anti-smoking efforts, according to a recent study by researchers from Yale University.
Jamie Elizabeth Rosen
- 19%. That’s the current smoking rate in the U.S., down from a whopping 42% five decades ago when U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry published the first report on the negative health impacts of smoking.
- 3,000. The number of young people who still try their first cigarette every day. Almost 700 become regular smokers.
- 7,600. The number of store locations that will no longer sell tobacco products as a result of CVS’s decision. Under the Tobacco Control Act, the Food and Drug Administration cannot mandate what retailers sell, although interestingly it does have the power to mandate the amount of nicotine in cigarettes in addition to advertising restrictions and general standards for tobacco production
Public consciousness, regulation, and education on the harmful effects of tobacco are all factors in the tremendous progress that has been made in saving lives. The World Health Organization’s global recommendations for tobacco control are known as the MPOWER measures and include the following:
With the efforts of both public and private sector actors, 2014 could be a watershed year for tobacco control in the U.S. In addition to CVS’s tobacco ban, several new initiatives on the part of the government and private industry have already been announced this year that address components of MPOWER:
- Earlier this month, the FDA launched a new media campaign targeting youth. “We are addressing one of the biggest public health problems in this country and in the world,” FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg said. “It’s something the FDA has not really done before in terms of a broad public health campaign of this magnitude but it’s something that we are so pleased to be doing because it matters for health.”
- Walgreens and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare announced a smoking cessation initiative. Along with resources to help quit smoking, Walgreens’ new Sponsorship to Quit provides smokers with 24/7 tips and tools, celebrations for milestones, a free consultation and other valuable support systems for smokers in their journey to quit. MinuteClinic also provides online tips, tools and facts to help smokers kick their habits.
Have you or anyone you know succeeded in quitting smoking cigarettes or using other tobacco products? Have you seen an effective campaign against tobacco? Post to the comments section to share your impressions of what works.