Sanda_Issue_February-2019

Do Anti-smoking
Warnings Really
Help?
wellness
debate
Against
For
49
Are you For or Against?
For – Austin González, Non-smoker
Quit Smoking campaigns are the only reason why a whole lot of smokers give
up smoking. But these need to be sustained campaigns that continue for years.
Such campaigns, along with convincing people to avoid tobacco, help change
the social norms surrounding smoking. It’s no longer cool to smoke. When
you convince people, especially young adults, that healthy is the new sexy,
the perception changes. Add to it the awareness that you can actually harm
your loved ones, whether it is your elderly parents, your romantic partner, or
babies in the house, by exposing them to second-hand smoke, and you gain
fresh insights into this habit. Posters, hoardings and warnings of how you will
have to pay a fine for smoking in smoke-free zones also deter people from
experiencing the social disadvantage of smoking. Sustained social marketing
and public education campaigns, and the government getting involved in
it through increased taxation and pricing of tobacco products, help. To
encourage the intention to quit smoking, smokers need to see what they
would lose by smoking and what they could gain by quitting. That can and
does happen only through sustained messaging on a mass scale.
Against – Jignesh Shah, Ex-smoker
I didn’t stop smoking by looking at the posters and reading warnings in the
media. Sure, they appear everywhere but I didn’t really care for them. I kicked
the butt because I started experiencing physical problems like coughing,
wheezing, headaches, loss of breath, acidity and other such things. Also,
smoking is no longer cool. Most of my friends are into healthy eating and
gymming. There are no-smoking zones everywhere and it was a nuisance to
find a place where I could be with my friends and smoke. My non-smoking
friends had started to complain about my smoke bothering them. The worst
part of it was that my new girlfriend, disgusted by my breath, once said,
“I’d rather kiss a toilet bowl!” That really devastated me. Of course, quitting
wasn’t easy. I had to make many attempts but I persisted. A friend, who is into
fitness, told me that smoking even a single cigarette before workouts affects
your physiological response to exercise. Over time, you become vulnerable
to higher risk of cardiovascular events. Most importantly, I have also read
that smoking can have a huge impact on a man’s erections. In fact, erectile
dysfunction is very much a part of the list of conditions that can be caused by
smoking. I most certainly don’t want that!
What do you think? Do Anti-smoking Warnings Really Help?
Visit www.yourwellness.com to register your vote!
Recent research,
published online by
the journal ‘Nicotine &
Tobacco Research’, says
that depicting gruesome
displays of smokingcaused
diseases actually
reported teenagers being
more susceptible to
cigarette smoking. So, do
anti-smoking warnings in
the media and public life
really help in any way?
yourwellness.com