Non-smoker protection shows first effect

Millions of people live longer thanks to prevention campaigns

08/01/2014

Smoking is one of the biggest preventable health risks of today. In the state of Hesse alone, more than 100,000 people die each year as a result of the blue smoke. As the first federal state, the local government had promoted active non-smoker protection to prevent smoking in schools and in schoolyards by law.

With rising prices for cigarettes and shock pictures on the boxes, the government has been trying for some time to deter teens from smoking and to make smokers quit. Towards the end of 2013, the German Cancer Aid had a nationwide poster campaign with the motto “No power to the cancer“ started.

Prevention campaigns are showing results
Studies show that the measures are effective and save lives. According to the German Cancer Research Center, the number of smokers in Germany has been steadily declining for ten years. "We see a continuous decline in the total population, but especially among the children and adolescents", says Martina Pötschke-Langer from the DKFZ. In 2002 there were still 145 billion cigarettes smoked in Germany, compared to only 82 billion in 2012. "These laws and the debates that have led to the fact that the social acceptance of smoking has fallen extremely“, so Pötschke-Langer.

Almost every organ in the body is damaged by smoking. The airways and the cardiovascular system are particularly affected. Several smokers die each year from lung cancer that develops as a result of smoking. But the passive smoking is dangerous. WHO researchers reported in 2010 in the journal “Lancet“, that every year about 600,000 people are affected by the “Mitrauchens“ to die.

Decline in smoking US population
US scientists have in the journal “Jama“ pointed out that the proportion of the smoking population worldwide has dropped significantly. This resulted in several studies that dealt with the problems of smoking. The researchers had collected data on the smoking behavior of citizens between 1980 and 2012 for 187 countries. Thanks to education and smoke-stop programs, around eight million people in the US have been saved from death over the last 50 years, according to the researchers. As early as the mid-1960s, after the first report on the effects of smoking on health, the US government had responded with numerous measures and laws for non-smoking protection.

In the current study, scientists working with Theodore Holford from the Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, investigated the impact on smoking-related deaths. First of all, the number of smokers in the population and the daily cigarette consumption were recorded. Taking into account the epidemiological data and existing scientific evidence on the impact of smoking on health, the researchers had identified the number of expected deaths from smoking. The results obtained were then compared with the actual deaths since the introduction of control measures after 1964. The result for the scientists was the positive influence of the anti-smoking campaigns.

17.7 million people died in the US between 1964 and 2012 because they had smoked. Without government interference, it would have been several million more, but this success was not enough. „The anti-smoking measures are estimated to be associated with the prevention of eight million premature deaths and an estimated extended lifespan of 19-20 years. Although tobacco control is an important public health achievement, further efforts must be made to reduce the impact of smoking on the death toll“, write scientists in the trade magazine “Jama“.

Further measures are planned
For example, scientists from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA, have found that the number of smokers worldwide and the number of cigarettes smoked daily have actually risen since 1980, the researchers report , In Germany, further central measures, such as a comprehensive advertising ban and the imprint of so-called shock pictures on the cigarette packs, are to follow in the future. German experts are convinced that these measures will lead to a further decline. (Fr)

Picture: Sandra Nabbefeld