WHO's plans to prevent the younger generation from starting to smoke
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Christine Mauer-Stender, the head of the tobacco control project at the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization, noted that one of the two smokers died an average of 15 years earlier. She also stressed that if tobacco had been discovered only recently, it would never have been possible to make it legal.
But 15-year-olds are unlikely to die of lung cancer in the distant future from wanting to smoke a few cigarettes. According to Christine Mauer-Stender, the payment for the addiction can be compared with a trip to a supermarket, where you can buy anything you want, and pay in 20 or 30 years.
In adolescence, the search for self, the formation of personality begins, and smoking can be associated with the image of a young man or a girl that he created for himself. Smoking is a desire to isolate oneself, to emphasize one's individuality or belonging to a particular group. And cigarette manufacturers use this skill very skillfully, creating in advertising the image of a smoker as a successful, strong and confident person.
Despite the fact that in European countries smoking in adolescence is declining, about 20% of young people continue to smoke, and the number of smoking girls in Eastern Europe increased by 2%. Proportional to the way in Eastern Europe, more women are getting economic independence, the symbol of emancipation and freedom is precisely cigarettes.
The World Health Organization intends to protect the health of children and adolescents intends to grow the generation of a new millennium that will be free from tobacco. Experts note that the new generation has every chance to become free from tobacco dependence. In most European countries, which are major suppliers of tobacco, there is a decline in the level of smokers. In Western Europe, the number of smokers is noticeably decreasing, especially among women, while in eastern Europe the number of women smokers is increasing.
While countries are making every effort to achieve the ambitious goal of reducing the number of smokers by 30% by 2025, WHO plans to ensure that all children who were born after 2000 grew up on the continent where tobacco is a rarity and grew free from the influence of tobacco, directly or indirectly.
In order to prevent the emergence of new smokers among the younger generation, WHO intends to apply the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The increase in taxes and, consequently, the price of tobacco products is an effective tool for reducing tobacco consumption, especially among the teenage group that is most susceptible to price changes.
Also, smoking prevention among adolescents is facilitated by the ban on tobacco advertising, the use of simple packages and frightening images on them.
An example of how to prevent smoking among adolescents could be Finland, which at the legislative level decided to fight with smoking. Thanks to the laws, children and adolescents grow up in a society where smoking is considered an immoral phenomenon.
The main goal of the state is to reduce the number of smokers among adults to 2% by 2040. For this purpose, the Finnish laws provide for colorless packaging without specifying the manufacturer's brand, increasing taxation, restricting smoking in public metahs and places of residence, private cars (if there are children there), on playgrounds and attractions, on the beach. In addition, businesses and communities are encouraged to introduce a smoking ban, support the desire to quit smoking among the population, prevent the introduction of new types of tobacco products on the market, and regulate the use of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine and forbid smoking electronic cigarettes where smoking is prohibited.
Christine Mauer-Stender said that smoking should be attributed to heavy dependencies, and not to be considered freedom from prejudice. Each country must protect its citizens from the dangers inherent in smoking and special attention should be given to the younger generation, as they are more susceptible to the development of nicotine dependence due to their biological characteristics.