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Children in Britian are drawing anti-smoking pictures like this one to try and get their parents to quit.
The war on cigarettes is in full swing in Britain as an anti-smoking group has started a campaign that gets children to draw pictures of their parents smoking with captions like "mommy, you're killing me."
The group hopes a heart-felt message from children will get some parents to kick the habit.
Most smokers are adults, but many who suffer the side-effects are much, much younger.
So those trying to persuade us to quit smoking believe it's only children who can help us kick the habit.
The images in a book published by one cancer charity today were all drawn by youngsters desperate for their parents to give up like Lewis Michael Waite, 10, who had to live with his mom's secondhand smoke.
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Charlotte Church - drinker, clubber, good-time girl extraordinaire - has turned her image on its head to promote healthy living.
The world-famous singer, until recently seen in celebrity magazines holding a drink and a cigarette is backing No Smoking Day this year.
Church chucked her 20-a-day habit at New Year, and apart from a lapse on her birthday, has stuck to her resolution.
But she has warned other quitters they will need "willpower".
Promoting the no-smoking message in Cardiff, the 20-year-old admitted she found it "really hard", but was motivated by changes in the tone of her voice to quit.
A MASSIVE 1.4million people gave up cigarettes on No Smoking Day, it was revealed yesterday.
Around one in six were spurred to quit - the most for a decade. In London it was one in five.
One in six of women smokers and one in eight of men made the change on March 10. And well over two million more tried to cut down or sought advice on quitting. Last year 1.1million tried stubbing out the habit.
Ben Youdanon, of No Smoking Day, said: "Even smokers' attitudes are changing.
A new private member's Bill to restrict smoking in public places is being introduced in the House of Lords on No Smoking Day (Wednesday 10th March 2004) by Lord Faulkner of Worcester. The Bill is virtually identical to a measure introduced in 1994 as a backbench Bill in the House of Commons by Tessa Jowell MP, now Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Lord Faulkner's Bill would prevent any employee from being required by their contract of employment to work in a smoking area. It would also give statutory backing to no-smoking areas in enclosed public places (including bars, pubs and restaurants), and allow the Government to set maximum permitted exposure levels to environmental tobacco smoke for both employees and members of the public.
An important reason for introducing the Bill is because the voluntary measures taken by the pub and restaurant industries under the self-regulatory Public Places Charter have failed. An independent survey of pubs and bars in England and Wales, commissioned by the Department of Health and the industry's own Charter Group, reported that in March 2003 that only 3 of those surveyed had barred smoking, 764 had separate non-smoking areas, and 903 permitted smoking throughout their premises. One fifth of the sample had failed to comply with the Charter, even though this can be readily achieved by signs stating that smoking is permitted.
Doctors at a Gloucestershire surgery are offering smokers a £20 reward if they kick the habit for a month.
The GPs, at Frampton-on-Severn, are funding the initiative out of their own pockets to tie in with National No Smoking Day on 10 March.
Willing patients will also get free patches, gum or other nicotine replacement therapies.
Dr Charles Buckley said: "It's not a huge sum, but will pay for an evening out, perhaps a meal.
Around 5,000 lighters and 20,000 match boxes carrying contact details for the Manchester Stop Smoking Service were being handed out round the city.
The campaigners were gleefully adopting the same now-banned advertising tactics of the tobacco industry.
And they said the stunt was the one way they could guarantee that they could get close to addicts on National No Smoking Day.
Manchester Stop Smoking youth officer Paul Wright said: "Tobacco companies are being banned from advertising so we are just stepping into the gap by putting our name on lighters and matchboxes.
"We know that people who are addicted are going to smoke and this is one way of making sure that if they do decide to give up they have got the number when they need it."
FAMILY doctors are too overworked to tackle patients about smoking even though treating smoking-related illnesses costs the NHS 1.5 billion a year in England, research showed today.
Some GPs were so worried about increasing their workload that they were unwilling to put up posters about quitting smoking in their waiting rooms.
The findings by charity group which organises No Smoking Day, which falls on Wednesday, also showed that one in two smokers will die from the habit.
Many GPs told the charity they were reluctant to raise the subject because it takes time to provide adequate help and advice. . .
They also said talking to their patients about smoking could often be "frustrating" and "unrewarding" and that they "didnt like to bother" patients who had other problems, such as lack of money or poor housing.
This is despite figures showing more than 80 per cent of smokers regret ever starting smoking and that stopping smoking results in lower stress levels. . .
Doreen McIntyre, chief executive of No Smoking Day, said: " Smoking-related illness is filling up GP waiting rooms and hospital beds, but smokers arent yet getting rapid access to the specialist services that can help them stop.
"GPs need better information about these services, and they need to encourage their patients to use them."
But according to leading life insurance brokers, smokers who ignore advice to quit on National No Smoking Day next Wednesday will be forced to pay through the nose for their habits.They claim the extra paid bears no relationship to the additional health risks involved in smoking that all admit - including the tobacco lobby. . .
Forest, the lobbying organisation for smokers, believes non-smokers get a good deal at the expense of those with tobacco habits.
"Recent research by Professor Richard Doll, who discovered the links between lung cancer and cigarettes, shows smoking really affects older age groups while those who start as teenagers and stop at 30 only run a 2% extra risk of cancer - those ending the habit at 50 only face an 8% additional risk. This small gap becomes huge in the hands of the insurers," says Simon Clark at Forest. . .
Giving up can transform smokers' finances. The money comes from taxed income. For someone on a typical £22,000 a year salary, the extra cash effectively adds up to a 10% pay rise. It would pay for a three-star fortnight's holiday for two in Europe or a top of the range television set.
But savings from butting out cigarettes can be even bigger if they are invested.