In recognition of the adverse consequences of tobacco use on patient health, the financial burden of smoking on the health care system, and the role of health services in the treatment of tobacco users (to enable their cessation of smoking), the NSW Department of Health has implemented a number of smoking cessation initiatives in recent years. Among these are the 1999 NSW Smokefree Workplace Po...

BACKGROUND Many Ontarians continue to report exposure to second-hand smoke in public spaces. Completely smoke-free environments are the preferred and socially responsible option for non-smoking policies; however, when considering the variety of landscapes in which post-secondary institutions are located, 'a one size fits all' smoking policy is unrealistic to implement and enforce. The purpose o...

Public health initiatives to distribute nicotine replacement therapy free of charge as a means of promoting smoking cessation are ongoing. Are there enough smokers interested in using nicotine replacement therapy to have a substantial impact on the prevalence of smoking if this aid were distributed free to all interested smokers? We conducted a telephone survey of 825 randomly selected daily sm...

Japan is one of the countries where the percentage of smokers is still notoriously high. The percentage of people smoking among those aged 20 years or over in 1995 was reported by the National Survey on Nutrition to be 52.7% in males and 10.6% in females (Health and Welfare Statistics Association, 1997). It has been estimated that considerable numbers of cigarettes are now being consumed by ado...

In concert with clinical medicine, which addresses diseases in individuals, the public health approach targets behavioral, sociocultural, and environmental factors that contribute to disease and injury in populations. For example, over the last 40 years, coordinated government efforts and efforts and private sector initiatives decreased smoking prevalence by almost half through taxation of toba...

A variety of risk factors for adolescent smoking have been identified and explored, but few have focused on the influence of second-hand tobacco smoke on smoking initiation. Consideration of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, and the influence this has on smoking initiation, is particularly important in the home and the school environment, as this is where young people spend the majority of ...

The incidence of low birthweight has been related to smoking prevalence in each social group using published data for 1984. The attributable risk of low birthweight has been estimated, based on a relative risk of 2 for mothers who smoke during pregnancy. Assuming 12.5% of cigarette smokers stopped smoking during pregnancy, 18.1% of all low weight births were caused by maternal smoking in 1984. ...

BACKGROUND Medical students' views may provide some direction for future policy considerations. AIM The aim of this study was to assess gender differences in future doctors' receptiveness to currently implemented anti-smoking messages and the effectiveness of those messages. MATERIALS AND METHODS We administered a questionnaire to all students at a medical university in Malaysia, asking how...

Smoking is a major public health concern among the Aboriginal Canadian Population. The age-adjusted smoking-attributable death rates are two times those of other Canadians; 20% of adult deaths among Aboriginal Canadians is attributable to smoking. There is no research that implemented and examined interventions of smoking cessation in Aboriginal Canadians, particularly in Northern British Colum...

Patterns of smoking can vary among youth smokers. The purpose of this study was to examine three different patterns of smoking among youth (daily smoking, smoking sporadically on weekdays and weekends, and smoking during weekdays only), and to examine the sociodemographic characteristics that are associated with each smoking pattern in a representative sample of Canadian youth smokers. Data wer...