Stop-Smoking Campaigns Work

news you may not knowYeah, It's Worth It...

How do you fight the $13 billion big tobacco companies spend each year to promote their addictive product? [The ethics of spending billions to promote a known cancer-causing agent is an issue for another time] Well, if you live in sunny California you take the same approach to this problem as you do to most others: you throw money at it.

California spent $1.8 billion combating smoking over a 15-year period. Sure, it's a drop in the bucket compared to big tobacco's spending. But, the payoff was impressive. A study conducted by the University of California San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education showed California got a hefty return on their money.

The group estimates California saved $86 billion over the 15-year effort. That's close to a 50-fold return on their money. In today's market that's quit a trick. The savings are based on the reduction in costs to provide health care for smoking related disease.

The fascinating aspect of California's initiative is that it focused on adults - most programs typically focus on teens, in an effort to prevent them from becoming first-time smokers. California pursued an aggressive media campaign aimed at encouraging adults to quit smoking. They combined their media blitz with public policy directives aimed at creating smoke-free environments.

So, that money California threw at the tobacco problem? Bull's eye!

To read more about the study, see this from Reuters. To find help in quitting smoking, see this from smokefree.gov.