Anti-smoking initiatives - successful or not?

[Ashley_Price]

So, I was thinking about all the different initiatives there have been over the years to try and stop people from smoking.

When you consider shops in the UK can't even have cigarettes, etc., on display, but has there ever been any evidence that this has stopped people smoking?

I often go to a town in Germany, and not only are the cigarettes on display, the customer can get their own packs from a vending machine in the supermarket.

I know there are people who want to give up, and perhaps seeing the packets is a temptation, but then that's the same for alcoholics.

But what about those who "want" to carry on smoking?

 

[MikeJ]

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...lletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2016

Smoking is slowly reducing in the UK, and reducing fastest in the 18-26 year old bracket.

 

[Brian Mcculloch Glasgow]

I would say to a certain extent it is successful.

 

[EdSim]

To me they are absolutely useless. I've been a smoker for 6 years now and all these campaigns have achieved is to disturb the aesthetics of a cigarette pack. They place photoshopped "disturbing" images on a pack to make you quit but all they make me do is ask for a different pack with a picture that does not look like an a**. All the tv ads and the doctors saying "don't smoke, it's bad for you" can't make a hardcore smoker quit until he/she desires to do so.

 

[Ian J]

Both of my daughter in law's parents died of lung cancer yet she still smokes.

Years ago I found the TV ads that focussed in on how bad smokers smell were more effective than the health warnings as I'm sure they were to many other vain people

 

[Brook999]

It is really hard to give up. I tried several times with no success, until I got pregnant. The day I found out that I would be a mother was the last day of smoking for me.