W.H.O. and Bloomberg Open Global Antismoking Project

Barbara Navarro/February 8, 2008/12:30 pm/Global Health issue

Smoking has killed so many people over the years and many more will die from smoking.
The sad thing is the advertisements make smoking look like it is a cool thing to do and the packages. Warning labels are not harsh enough to discourage many from smoking, instead what the public gets is these packages that invite people to smoke. What would happen if they put pictures of how someone's lungs look on them, or show someone dying from smoking. If these horrible pictures of what smoking really does to a person could be displayed on the packages along with harsher warning labels just might make a difference.

According to this article I pulled The World Heath Organization has open up a project that hopes to make progress in anti smoking. The W.H.O says that the tobacco industry is the biggest enemy. They believe it will kill over a billion people in the 21st century. They have seen in in poor and middle class countries cigarette sales has soared and the prices of cigarettes has increased. In the wealthier countries it has decrease.

In these poor and middle class countries taxes are 5,000 times more, which is way more than they spend on trying to help come up with programs to help to smoking. What is sad only 5% of the world has non smoking laws. The revenue from smoking is so much. I feel this is why there isn’t such an effort made for more laws against smoking. The W.H.O wants to a report on how much people smoke in each country. Dr. Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general, said at a news conference introducing the report. “Today we intend to enhance that reputation.”

Smoking is just not good for anyone. To advertise and to make it look refreshing or relaxing is a misconception all together. How relaxing would it been later when a person has to fight for a breath? How fair is it to the children and others who have to inhale someone’s dangers they throw out to others? I think there should more efforts to help educate the youth of all countries. I believe this is where it begins and where it might start to put an end to smoking. Show them the horrible effects by advertising in a diverse way. They are looking for ways to help with health issues such as health insurance and not having money for health care, part of solving this problem would be to stop a lot of bad habits people gets them selves into. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/health/policy/08smoking.html