Stricter Regulations For To Drop Cigarette Use
Published on February 16, 2010 7:30 AM
Colorado local officials established stricter anti-tobacco legislations for to decrease cigarette use. So, thanks to a state legislations and stricter local ordinances the smoking among inhabitants, especially among children has been reduced.
For example statistics show that in Colorado annual cigarette consumption decreased from 67 packs per capita in 2001 to 46.3 in 2008, much lower than the national average of 63.4. Even among high school students, smoking dropped from 14.6 percent in 2006 to 11.9 percent in 2008.
Jillian Jacobellis, director of CDPHE’s Prevention Services Division, explained: "Increasing the cigarettes prices and enforcing smoke-free laws play a big role in reducing tobacco use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Colorado officials enforced a tobacco tax increase in 2005 and a year later, the 2006 Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act. Researchers found that this tobacco tax increase dropped the cigarette use among adult whites to 16.8 percent and among women, to 15.7 percent. So, people are exposed to less secondhand smoke in homes, cars and work sites. Because stricter smoking ban, smokers use fewer cigarettes each day and even they are ready for tobacco cessation treatment. Despite these successes, smoking continues to be a big problem among low-income people where the rate continues high at 29.2 percent, near three times that of other population.
The state also has to fight the tobacco industry’s $200 million wasted in marketing while distributing with health problems that health official said smoking kill approximately 4,300 Coloradans every year. So, tobacco-related illnesses cost Coloradans more than $1.3 billion in health care every year.
And not only in Colorado stricter anti-tobacco legislations had positive effects, but in many other states too. For example, Dr. Chris Nevin-Woods, executive director of the Pueblo City-County Health Department, declared that the percentage of people in Pueblo who smoke has dropped from 25 percent to somewhat more than 20 percent.
