Indian Smokers and Tobacco Addiction

Smoking kills, but most smokers still don’t know how. One in two Indian smokers isn’t aware that tobacco addiction can lead to stroke and 38% that it can cause heart disease. These are some of the startling findings of a World Heart Federation report that will be released at the World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) in Dubai on Saturday. India is high on tobacco addiction. It has 138 million smokers and 28% of its people in the 15-49 age group use tobacco in some form or the other. Bidis are the most popular (48%) followed by tobacco-chewing (38%) and cigarettes (14%).

Cost of Tobacco Smoking

An employee's money-saving idea is one hot topic in Fort Worth. He wants the city to hire only non-smokers, and that proposal is getting a reaction from co-workers and City Council members.

City Manager Tom Higgins presented the idea informally as one of several possibilities to the Council at Tuesday's meeting. Council member Frank Moss raised serious issues with the idea. "We may lose a lot of good people by excluding smokers," he said.

Tobacco Smoking and Teens

You may have recently noticed a surge on the anti-tobacco war front. This increase in the anti-tobacco campaign comes at the heels of national cancer statistics, which report that there has been a decrease in national cancer rates. The fact is that adolescents are hard to reach when it comes to preventive health care. From 1997-2003, cigarette use declined sharply, but more recent statistics show that current rates are declining at a much slower rate. Nearly all first time tobacco use occurs before high school graduation.

Smoking Promotion Effective

Many of us know that long term smoking can lead to harmful effects, but now a recent ad campaign is showing positive signs of helping people kick the habit. You may have noticed the graphic commercials recently that show the effects of smoking.According to some recent numbers, those stop smoking ads are doing their job. The often gruesome ads are turning heads and turning over some new life choices for smokers.

The number of calls to tobacco quit lines has increased considerably in Ohio and across the nation ever since the government launched the graphic ad campaign.