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Fire statistics reveal that over 800 people were killed or injured in accidental house fires started by cigarettes or smoking materials in 2007.[1] The shocking figures reveal that 1 in 3 fire deaths are caused by smoking materials and men aged between 30 and 59 were among the highest risk groups for smoking related fires in the home.
In response to the serious fire risks caused by smoking, the Fire Kills campaign is supporting No Smoking Day 2009 and giving smokers yet more reasons to quit on March 11 and beyond.
Former BDO World Darts Champion and England International, John 'Boy' Walton is supporting the Fire Kills no smoking campaign. He intends to use No Smoking Day to finally quit smoking and is urging others to do the same. He says:
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The Ministry of Defence is gearing up for the ninth Military No Smoking Day in a bid to slash the number of Service personnel who have a tobacco habit.
As part of the wider UK campaign, Military No Smoking Day takes place on Wednesday 11 March 2009 and is seen as the ideal opportunity for those who wish to stop the habit to begin a new lifestyle.
The MOD provides free patches, gum and other cessation services to Service personnel who want to quit smoking and units across the country will be holding events to raise the profile of the day and provide support and advice for those who want to stub out their cravings.
Smoking rates across the Armed Forces vary. The Royal Navy at 19 per cent and RAF at 15 per cent are lower than the national average of 26 per cent. Although the Army at 29 per cent is slightly above the average, they are reducing on average at about one per cent a year.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Today is also the first day of National Non-Smoking Week which runs until Saturday.
Most of us know how badly smoking can impact your health, so this year, National Non-Smoking Week is focusing on house fires.
“We all know about the negative effect of tobacco smoke on health, but very few of us may think about other consequences, such as house fire fatalities,” stated Trish Hill, senior tobacco reduction co-ordinator with Interior Health. . . .
Partners in this week’s awareness-raising effort include the B.C. Lung Association, the B.C. Cancer Agency and the Interior Health Tobacco Reduction program.
B.C. smoking rates are at 14 per cent, the lowest in Canada.
VANCOUVER - Smokers and non-smokers in Grades 5 through 8 are being offered $5,000 to quit smoking or stay smoke-free throughout their high school years.
The group Rewarding Everyone Who Acts Responsibly and Doesn't Smoke, or R.E.W.A.R.D.S., is unveiling its Canada-wide program in conjunction with National Non-Smoking Week, which begins Sunday.
National anti-smoking foundation R.E.W.A.R.D.S. (Rewarding Everyone Who Acts Responsibly and Doesn't Smoke) today announced a new national program aimed at curbing the rate of teenage smoking in Canada.
"This is a unique program in that it gives a tangible reward to young people who agree to complete high school, while remaining smoke-free," says R.E.W.A.R.D.S. program President Samy Bishay. "Our goal is to sign up to 100,000 young people in the program over the next few months."
The program, which launches in conjunction with National Non-Smoking Week (January 20-26) in Canada, targets smokers and non-smokers, grades five through eight, offering them a $5,000 cash incentive to simply graduate high school smoke-free.
FIGURES released today show that 28,000 smokers actually stopped smoking on No Smoking Day last month.
Meanwhile 274,000 smokers took a positive step towards stopping smoking.
Helen Atkinson, Regional Tobacco Control Policy Manager for the South East, said: "Thousands of smokers in the South East are now reaping the benefits of stopping smoking on No Smoking Day. They are feeling healthier, fitter and financially better off. It is never too late to stop smoking, contact your local NHS stop smoking service for help and support."
The charity called No Smoking Day launched its Make a fresh start' campaign on March 14 has seen a surge in the numbers of people who have requested information to organise events.
It says an increased demand is due to the UK's smokefree legislation coming into force this year
Many primary care trusts in England have cut their budget for stop smoking services, according to figures from the Conservative Party.
A survey found that 44 of the 115 PCTs surveyed had cut or frozen funding during this financial year.
A further 12 PCTs had raised their budgets by such a small amount that it amounted to a real terms cut.
The government said spending on smoking cessation had risen, and great strides had been made in helping people quit.
Figures released today, No Smoking Day, reveal that one in five smokers (20 per cent) say that they will try to, or definitely stop smoking when the UK goes completely smokefree from July 1st. If every smoker who stopped was successful the number of lives saved would be 1.25 million. That's equivalent to nobody dying in England and Wales for 2 years!(1)
No Smoking Day, the charity behind today's campaign commissioned a YouGov survey on public awareness of the incoming ban on smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces. The survey showed that 20 per cent of smokers plan to make a quit attempt as England goes smokefree.
Ben Youdan, Chief Executive of No Smoking Day, which runs the annual health awareness campaign said: '"No Smoking Day is the ideal opportunity to stop smoking before Smokefree comes into place this summer. More than two-thirds of smokers say they want to quit smoking and should seek advice and support from stop smoking services to do that.
Andrew Lansley has accused the Government of outrageous mismanagement, after it emerged that the NHS has slashed its "stop smoking" budgets on the eve of National No Smoking Day.
With a Conservative survey showing that almost half of Primary Care Trusts have cut back on sums being spent on curbing smoking, the Shadow Health Secretary protested: "This is an outrageous example of Labour's mismanagement and lack of concern for public health."
He declared: "There is no point in spending taxpayers' money on anti-smoking campaigns if the NHS can't provide the necessary follow up help."
During non-smoking week, Imperial Tobacco Canada wishes to express its support of the recent TV awareness campaign featuring a variety of prominent Quebecers.
"By telling their stories in a straightforward manner, these individuals are helping to make smokers aware of the risks associated with smoking and why they should quit", asserted Yves-Thomas Dorval, Head of Public Affairs at Imperial Tobacco Canada.
The company wants to emphasize the fact that it also agrees with similar active public education efforts to reduce or eliminate underage smoking, and fully supports government legislation that forbids the sale of cigarettes to those under 18 or 19 years of age (depending on jurisdiction).
To curtail such access, Imperial Tobacco Canada along with other partners, have been financially supporting the Operation ID program for many years.
And yet, even after a year apart, I can't help but wish sometimes we could be together again.
Ultimately, it was the death of CBC broadcaster Peter Gzowski that convinced me to stop smoking, and I've been cigarette-free ever since. In body if not necessarily in mind.
For me, the affair started at the age of 12 . . .
The grieving, which began as soon as a serious promise to stop had been made, was part of the attitude that made me successful at quitting. In my mind, my friend was going to die, a way of life would be over, and once our final two weeks were up, there was nothing to do to bring him back. I accepted it with sadness, moved on and got over it. As with any loss, time heals.
OTTAWA (CP) - The anti-tobacco lobby denounced Health Minister Anne McLellan on Weedless Wednesday, saying she lacks the leadership of her predecessor in the fight against smoking.
The complaint came as McLellan announced at a downtown health clinic that the federal government will spend $5 million on anti-smoking ads. Smoking "is a health issue and the champion has to be the health minister," Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada spokeswoman Cynthia Callard said.
"We know we had a champion with the last minister."
Callard noted that in the year since taking over the health portfolio from Allan Rock, McLellan cut $13 million from the anti-tobacco program.
Anti-smoking activists argue the government should spend much more on stop-smoking programs, given how much it profits from tobacco sales.
The minister acknowledged the cuts but denied backing down in the fight against smoking.
The Honourable Anne McLellan, Minister of Health, will launch Health Canada's new mass media cessation campaign.
The Minister will also announce funding for programs across the country to help Canadians quit smoking, and new statistics from the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey.
The Minister will be available for a brief scrum following the formal announcement.
But young people, always alert to adult hypocrisy, are apparently not impressed. . .
They recognise a half-truth when they hear it. The propaganda never acknowledges the many advantages of smoking, its dark pleasure and irresistible beauty. . .
But most of all, cigarettes introduce into our lives a form of beauty, the negative beauty that has been called sublime. It is the beauty, not of childish pleasures that taste sweet, but of adult pleasures, which rarely taste good, and inevitably entail risk.
That's why 43% of US teenagers smoke. Cigarettes have traditionally been the most widely available means of initiating adolescents into the reality of adult pleasure.
Teenagers understand implicitly that they are expected to discover for themselves how to deal with the temptations of compulsive habits. . .
Maybe on No Smoking Day adolescents should rather be encouraged to try it. On this day, they would be allowed to experience what it might mean to enjoy a substance that's likely, if abused over a long period of time, to kill them. . .
Lighting up on No Smoking Day should be a moment of confirmation for adolescents, a rite of passage, acknowledging the whole truth that they are embarked on the perilous adventure of learning to make fateful decisions, like grown-ups.
Maybe on No Smoking Day adolescents should rather be encouraged to try it. . . Lighting up on No Smoking Day should be a moment of confirmation for adolescents, a rite of passage, acknowledging the whole truth that they are embarked on the perilous adventure of learning to make fateful decisions, like grown-ups.Richard Klein, author of "Cigarettes are Sublime."