World No Tobacco Day – Time to Get Tobacco Out of Pharmacies, Apartments, Movies and… the Country?
Imagine a totally smoke-free country – sound like a dream, a public health fantasy? …well, it could be something we’ll see in our lifetime. In Finland, they’ve given notice to the public and to the tobacco companies – by 2040, they will be the first country in the world that is completely tobacco free. In BC, we may be the best in Canada but we’ve still got a ways to go yet.
Under fifteen percent of British Columbians continue to smoke which is still 550,000 too many. Today the Clean Air Coalition released its Tobacco Control Report Card comparing BC to the rest of Canada. The areas we’re doing well include the subsidization of nicotine replacement therapies and our overall low smoking rate. But BC remains one of the last provinces to ban smoking from pharmacies and isn’t doing great when it comes to ensuring an adequate supply of smoke-free apartments and townhouses.
It is also critical to prevent the next generation from even starting smoking, which is why we’ve encouraged government to classify movies with tobacco imagery as adult (18+) and to end subsidies to films featuring tobacco.
We’ve made tremendous gains over the past few decades in bringing down smoking rates but the next chapter in tobacco control will likely be more challenging. The people that continue to smoke have a serious addiction that hasn’t responded to health information, limits on access, price increases or even by shifting cultural norms. And because we’ve made such great gains in this area some feel that the issue is done and over with. But the lives of 550,000 British Columbians and the people around them depend on us continuing the fight.
While it may seem fantastical now, I hope in 2040 my children will look back at the start of the millennium and see it as a time when we finally got serious about getting rid of those death-sticks – ‘imagine that!’
If you or someone you know is ready to quit smoking, Quit Now can help.
Rita Koutsodimos
Manager, Advocacy and Communications
May 2012
