Worldwide Anti-Tobacco Treaty

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/health/28tobacco.html
This article talks about a world wide campaign involving 168 countries to try and lower smoking rates and in turn the number of deaths from tobacco-related ilnesses. The campaign involves a treaty requiring countries that ratify it to restrict tobacco advertising and sponsorship, put tougher health warnings on cigarettes and limit use of language like "low tar" and "light."
It is interesting to me to see this type of effort being made internationally. I was under the impression that smoking cigarettes was a habit widely accepted still in foreign countries. Obviosly as the world becomes more educated smoking will and has become less popular, but I didn't really think that internationally there was much concern for it. We all know there should be. This article states that cigarettes kill one smoker every 6.5 seconds.
The good thing though is that the popularity of smoking is definately decreasing. In fact I would have to say that that at least in the U.S. it is no longer a very accepted habit. I think that peer pressure these days leans more towards not participating in the habit. We use to say that teens would pick up smoking in order to "fit in" and be cool and/or to look older. I don't believe that's the case anymore. I think the main reason teens start smoking these days is because they are looking for a "buzz". For this reason we need to change our strategies when teaching tobacco prevention. Instead of targeting the traditional things that led teens to smoking we need to focus on teaching them or helping them to explore alternative and healthy methods of getting buzzed. At the same time we should no longer spend so much time talking about how peers might try to pressure an individual to try smoking. Those were the old days(as far as smoking tobacco goes) and now we should emphasize the fact that smoking is not very accepted anymore. We should try and paint the realistic picture the smoking habit todays world. That picture might be one of a handfull of office employees standing out in the back alley way of a business building on a cold January morning sucking on their coffin nails. Now days the smokers are forced out the back door to do their thing in their little confined area whereas in the past they could be smoking right their at their desk while working. Shoot, I remember my teachers smoking out on the playground while they were supervising our recess in elementary school. That's unheard of in todays world and that is something that we should reemphasize to our students. I think today the smoking habit is widely viewed as just that, a habit and a bad one too. It is no longer a desirous pass-time and our students know that. They see it much differently than we do. Again, I feel that the number one reason causing any teen-ager to start smoking these days is that need for a buzz or an escape from stress. As health educators we still need to touch on the traditional causes, but focus on these ones. That is just my opinion though. Reading this article just really made me ponder on what causes people to start and that's what I narrowed it down to.