Experts: Big Tobacco dead by 2047, possibly sooner
June 25, 2009President Barack Obama's signature on a bill this week to grant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco was historic, and represents a step in the march to eliminate tobacco use in this country by 2047, two national tobacco experts said today (June 25).
The pair published "Stealing a March in the 21st Century: Accelerating Progress in the 100-Year War Against Tobacco Addiction in the United States" in the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Michael Fiore and Timothy Baker, director and associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI), respectively, chart milestones in beating tobacco addiction and map a battle plan to eradicate tobacco use in the next few decades. The researchers analyzed data from the 1960s, when the first systemic tracking of smoking rates began, until the present.
"Numerous observers have claimed over time that tobacco use has plateaued and progress against its use has stalled," the authors write. "However, the remarkable decline in rates of tobacco use since the 1960s belies this claim and underscores the remarkable success of tobacco control efforts to date."
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show adults smoking between 1965 and 2007 dropped by an average of one half of one percentage point per year, from 42 percent to the current rate of about 20 percent rate. While this rate of decline hasn't occurred each year, the overall decrease has been quite steady.
The two researchers urge a nationwide effort designed to accelerate the rate of decline over the next 50 years through:
- Substantial increases in federal and state tobacco excise taxes.
- A national clean-indoor air law.
- Elimination of nicotine from tobacco products.
- Funds for an aggressive mass media campaign to counter the tide of tobacco industry ads and sponsorships.
- A ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
- Evidence-based counseling and medication for every smoker who wants to quit.
"The progress made in reducing tobacco use over the last 50 years should in no way temper our commitment to further reductions. Nor should that progress be interpreted to mean tobacco use is less toxic or that tobacco companies are now on the ropes. But, if appropriate steps are taken, a tobacco-free nation can be achieved within a few decades," Fiore says.
Past success has been born of:
- Tobacco tax increases.
- Enactment of clean-indoor air laws.
- Tobacco industry advertising restrictions.
- Tobacco product-labeling requirements.
- Policies that restrict youth access to tobacco products.
- Mass media campaigns.
- Increased availability and effectiveness of treatments to help current smokers quit.
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison (news : web)
Aug 21, 2008 |
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The 2nd is are they federally taxed for this plant?
Hmmm... the most powerful man in the world smokes... it's gotta be bad for you! ;)
"Manner Of Dress", "Obesety", "Voting Wrong", "Freedom Of Expression", "Candy" ; Canada, Here I Come!
Why does it have to come down to the government to decide whether or not we have the right to smoke? The information has been publicly spread and disemminated. If you choose to smoke then you choose to understand that you are at increased risk of contracting several diseases and ailments.
But I guess it's up to others to tell us what to do.
Damn, I didn't know smoking was an essential liberty.
Despite the ridiculousness of your statement I'm on your side about smoking... It shouldn't be any of the government's business. Just proves that the government has been bought and paid for.
Yes, dehumanize humans for their choices. Don't call them people, label them smokers. Divide people into "Us" and "Them". Tell "them" they are the scum of the earth, or better yet, that they are the embodiment of evil and their "kind" need to be exterminated.
Dehumanization, exactly what we need more of in this country!
It's smokers who subsidize you, not the other way around:
http://www.physor...954.html
You seem to believe you have the right to decide how others should live. If I were to exercise such a right you would live as many people. Obviously your brain won't be useful to anyone but that doesn't mean your other organs should be wasted like that.
And before you mention it I don't smoke.
(Before anyone asks, i started smoking 40 years ago.) It's not like we have a choice. Tobacco is addictive, which means we really don't have a free will at our disposal -- becacuse if we did, I think nobody would keep on smoking today. Quitting a lot of other things is child's play, compared.
So, we need government help with this. And maybe some day "real drugs" get eradicated, too. That would make me a lot less worried as a father of three lovely kids.
gwrede- you you you eh? What about us second hand smokers and the children you smokers deform? Your logic displays the extent of your own brain damage. I'm serious. Its not govt, its the 80% of the people who are fed up with what tobacco has done to this world. Forty years. Cough alot? Friends all dead?