New Anti-Smoking Project in Israel
Published on June 15, 2009 4:48 AM
There are no states without special projects to prevent teenage smoking. One of these states is Israel. The anti-smoking project from Israel was created by the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Israeli Cancer Association.
Even students are ready to take part in the new project. They were trained to speak to their friends about the harmful effects of smoking and about it addiction.
A participant of the project, Adi Karas, explained: "They were really surprised by what we told them because they didn't really know what the cigarette contains or how dangerous it is to use drugs. And after we talked to them and told them stories about people who used drugs and what happened to them or what may actually happen to them, so they were amazed and some of them even thanked me."
The young leaders prepared leaflets and signs warning about the dangers of smoking and other addictions.
Another participant added: "I think we really gave them some information and most of the students know what smoking does. I think this knowledge will cause them to stay away from drugs and cigarettes."
The topic of smoking and it addictions narrated to 130 Jewish and Arab schools in Israel.
The Israel’s Government decided to create such a project for to protect people especially teenagers from harmful effects of smoking. Because as it is known, addiction to tobacco products or nicotine is a very hard addiction. And in order to conduct it they should combine therapy both by medication and behavioral therapy. The most successful treatment is to prevent the addiction. We now know about several factors, both social and genetics that contribute to the addiction."
Scientists explained that the sensitivity and the susceptibility to addiction are bigger when the persons are younger.
Tobacco Companies know this, that’s why their advertisements are target especially to youngsters.
Prof. Abraham Eliraz, League for Prevention of Lung Diseases and Tuberculosis, reported: "People tend to say that smoking doesn't bother them, and it's true. Smoking doesn't bother people in their everyday life, but when we check people's larynxes we can see damage starting with the first cigarette. The damage increases permanently. Our body has ways of not showing superficial signs of this damage, but the signs show up after some time has passed."
There is no knowing whether people will really stop smoking after this program, but this program will have a very positive effect by informing children about smoking dangers and damages.
Smoking is very addictive, as many studies showed, and it is almost impossible to reverse it, that's why it's much better not to start smoking.
