SMOKERS are being told they have a starker choice than ever: quit now, or see your entire body shot to bits. That鈥檚 the ominous message from a major report last week on smoking and health, which says no organ in the body escapes harm from cigarettes.
But the report, published by the US Surgeon General Richard Carmona, shies away from any bold regulatory proposals to cut down the number of smokers. New research uncovered by New Scientist suggests the best remedies are higher taxes, bans on smoking in public, and total bans on advertising.
Carmona鈥檚 report rams home the message that smokers are putting more than their lungs and arteries at risk: all tissues suffer harm. It lists dozens of diseases now linked to tobacco use, including cancer of the stomach, cervix, pancreas and kidney. Other 鈥渘ew鈥� diseases include various types of leukaemia, pneumonia, gum disease and even cataracts.
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鈥淲e鈥檝e known for decades that smoking is bad for you, but this report shows that it鈥檚 even worse than we knew,鈥� said Carmona at the report鈥檚 launch. 鈥淭oxins from cigarette smoke go everywhere the blood flows.鈥� He also quashes the myth that smokers can avoid harm by switching to cigarettes lower in nicotine: 鈥淭here is no safe cigarette, whether it is called 鈥榣ight鈥�, 鈥榰ltra-light鈥�, or any other name.鈥�
While the report recommends vigorous programmes to reduce numbers of smokers, it fails to back specific regulations to achieve this. Yet research published this month underscores the value of increasing taxes on cigarettes. John Tauras of the University of Illinois in Chicago showed that for every 10 per cent hike in the price of cigarettes, young adults are 3.5 per cent more likely to quit (午夜福利1000集合 Policy, vol 68, p 321).
Tauras found that price rises also helped prevent people starting smoking in the first place, especially since the youngest groups have least disposable income. 鈥淭he evidence is clear 鈥� the higher you increase prices, the more young adults will quit and the fewer will start smoking,鈥� says Tauras. He also backs smoking bans in public buildings: 鈥淚t imposes another cost on the smoker, of having to go outside to light up.鈥�
An editorial in last week鈥檚 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (vol 350, p 2231) praises blanket bans like those pioneered in New York and Ireland. Norway has also just banned smoking in bars and restaurants, and London could follow suit, with the city鈥檚 mayor, Ken Livingstone 鈥� who is standing for re-election this month 鈥� last week vowing to ban smoking in public.
Total bans on advertising work too. A study of 22 nations in 2000 by Henry Saffer and Frank Chloupka of the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York showed that a total ban on advertising cut smoking, whereas partial bans have little or no effect.
Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head of the World 午夜福利1000集合 Organization鈥檚 Tobacco Free Initiative, is urging the US to ratify the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty obliging governments to combat tobacco. So far, 16 countries have ratified the treaty, but 40 are needed to bring it into force.
