The World Health Organization has repeatedly said that more effective tobacco control policies are needed in order to address the “smoking epidemic.” The World Health Organization informed that smoking cigarettes killed 100 million people around the world in the previous century and cautioned that in the 21st century it could kill one billion people worldwide. This unhealthy habit increases the risk of many other cancers in women, including breast, oral, pharynx, larynx, esophageal, pancreatic, kidney, bladder, uterine, and cervical cancers.

 

In an attempt to resolve the problem of smoking among students, a new group offered by Student Health Services will address this problem by trying to look for alternatives; the group addresses to those that may be interested in quitting smoking and proposes different topics of conversation starting from stress reductions, progressive muscle relaxation to practical methods on how to cope with stressful situations. The group will meet for about six weeks and is not limited to smokers.

 

One of the latest strategies aimed at reducing the number of smokers in UK is a legislation that will ban the display of cigarette products from shops. According to the new laws, from October 2011, large shops will have to remove all tobacco displays from the point of sale and smaller businesses will have to comply by 2013.

 

Reports show that in countries were the tobacco displays were removed, the smoking prevalence among young people has fallen by up to 10 percent.

Studies have shown that over eight in ten adults who have ever smoked regularly say they started before they were 19, which gives us a strong reason to implement programs that would stop children from smoking.