Is Mayor Bloomberg of NYC trying to control or nudge people with a new cigarette law?
This year 500,000 deaths, $200 billion cost for the US
~ Cynthia G. Creel
3-20-2013
My Story:
When I was little girl my parents didn't smoke cigarettes, but most everyone we knew did. I was told smoking wasn't good for me and I shouldn't However, I was given candy cigarettes which gave me a very different message. My best friend’s dad made him cigarettes that some how looked real and would have smoke that came from the tip. I can’t tell you how, I just know that memory has stuck with me.
The strongest message to stop me from picking up this additive habit was that my mom actually didn't smoke or my dad. The strongest message I did get was candy was ok, but that is a different story. There has been much research done that tells what influences children to start smoking and the effects.
The NYC challenge:
On a report on CBS This Morning (1) a better picture is formed with the details of what the New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to children to not smoke cigarettes by keeping cigarettes out of sight. out of mind. The cigarettes would be out of view of the general public and still for sale. It is not designed to stop any person legal to purchase cigarettes. It would also give New York City the authority to close down a store caught with illegal cigarettes. This new idea came from other countries like Canada and Australia with a similar law with the goal of preventing children from starting smoking.
Many have come out opposing the new proposed law with the New York Association of Convenience Stores opposed this idea of having to hid the merchandise stating the idea that other merchandise like beer and condoms didn't make kids drink or have sex so seeing cigarettes really didn‘t matter from their point of view. I would have to ask do there interest strictly lie in the fact that they want to sell more cigarettes, not that the sell of more cigarettes is going to help, just going to make them more profit. A single minded proposal, with only one point of view to consider. Plus with all the money spent on advertising it seems the visual does help sales. (see below for details on money spent for ads)
New York City does have a history of helping the city move forward. Currently the adult smoking rate in the city has dropped in 8 years to 14.8 percent in 2011 with the latest attempt to lower the rates even more if this new law is passed by the city council. This did not happen with the jumbo soda ban that is currently tied up in court.
According to another CBS news report (3) from a headphones campaign to lower the volume to helping lower teen pregnancy by using a crying baby New York City seems to be on the cutting edge of helping out their citizens. Is New York City trying to control or nudge?
Just the facts:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (4) reports on the details of the effects of tobacco. Smoking causes many health issues such as cancer, heart disease, stroke and lung disease. According to an article I wrote “Keeping your smile safe: 500 million visits, $108 billion spent,
gum disease, NO INSURANCE, death, a new solution?” (5) that almost 65 million American adults have gum disease affecting half the seniors in America with smoking being the cause for half of the severe cases of gum disease. Leaving people with gum disease at risk of tooth loss, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and premature, low-weight births.
The CDC (4) also reports World wide 5 million deaths per year with estimates of deaths increasing to 8 million by 2030 if there is no change with smoking-related diseases creating one death to 20 more who are suffering from illness related to smoking. In the United States about 1 in 5 die from smoking or almost 500,000 deaths per year with almost 50,000 from second hand smoke with the average person loosing about 14 years of life than non smokers.
A study affecting girls:
One study reported by the CDC on among female students in Vietnam ages 13 to 15 found
The girls were susceptible to smoking with having friends that smoked as the strongest indicator that they would start to smoke also. Attending school that promoted and described the harmful affects of smoking helped reduce cigarette smoking. Having billboard cigarette advertising helped to nudge a girl towards smoking compared to those who had never seen advertisements. The study concluded that having school based programs help to control cigarette smoking counteracting the effects of tobacco advertising practices that target young women in Vietnam.
It is all about the money:
This is a lot of money no matter which way you cut it. I helped on a campaign in California, USA that added a tax to tobacco sold that funded and advertising campaign against smoking, I believe the best ad created ad was one where a beautiful woman who crossed a room with a bunch of guys sitting a bar with a cigarette hanging out of there mouths. As the beautiful, sexy women passed each man and grabbed each guys attention their cigarette drooped which was to reflect erectile dysfunction. A very effective ad to stop people from smoking or to get them to stop smoking. Unfortunately, for helping people to stop or not start smoking a few years later there was a new law that took much of the money slated for advertising to prevent giving the funds to a different programs like helping premature babies. Plus a new proposal in California this past election to have another tax added was defeated, a win for the tobacco industry’s protecting their market and sales with powerful ads that inundated the air waves of why to vote no.
There is a vast amount of money surrounding the tobacco industry. The CDC (4) reports the cigarette industry spends over $8 billion a year in 2010 for advertising and promotions with up to $22 million spent a day in 2010 keeping $43.8 million smokers attention and helping another 1,000 people under the age of 18 start smoking each day in 2010 with a total of 52% of smoker attempting to stop in 2010.
I always think if an industry is spending billions they need to being making tons more then they spend or they wouldn't be advertising or be in business. If the ads happen year after year there has to be great profits being made.
The CDC (4,6) reports during 2000 to 2004 there were almost 500,000 deaths resulting from exposure to tobacco smoke. It is clear we have a great monetary cost of tobacco not just death when $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in health care expenditures with secondhand smoke costing an additional $10 billion for health care expenditures, morbidity and mortality. That’s a total of more than $200 billion spent to take care of the effects of smoking.
The states in the United States will collect over $25 billion in taxes from tobacco tax and legal settlements. Is that near enough to counter the negative effects of tobacco use? I think not.
Nudging people or controlling people?:
We see above that Bloomberg has been creating quite the stir in New York City with ways no other city in the United States has in helping the population become healthier and less expensive to maintain. If there is no larger entity with a goal of helping to counter act the effects of the tobacco industry then who will be leading our children? It seems there is a large effect from each ad or sighting of the cigarettes.
If the government steps in to nudge people in the right direction than it helps all of the populations to stay a little healthier saving millions of dollars. By keeping the cigarettes hidden it does help children make better choices just like the Vietnam girls from the study above smoked less if they did not see billboard advertisement. Yet the new law would still allows the freedom of choice of buying a legal substance like tobacco to any one that was legally able to just by asking.
Final word:
It is clear cigarettes cost a lot of money to support with medical cost affecting even those who do not smoke. In my opinion the tobacco industry is so large and has so much money to spend on advertising to influence many to buy tobacco that the government’s help is needed to nudge people in the correct direction while maintain freedom of choice and creating less of a social burden from the medical cost and deaths created from the use of tobacco.
Of course the easiest way to save all this money being spent on something that we burn up is step on to the path of True Health which helps create decisions from strength. Helping some to avoid starting and some to stop smoking. There is no grantee where the true Health path leads, but if nothing is done will that path lead to a closer “cliff” to fall off like a lemming into the ocean?
If no one started to use tobacco it would make the issues of tobacco a non issue by never starting or successfully stopping. All of this might just add back or keep those 14 years that might be lost if a person started to smoke. Just one baby step at a time keeps a person moving forward for a better tomorrow. I for one am delighted to see a Mayor care so much to help so many people help themselves.
Do you agree?
By Design ~ "Life is good By Design”
Photo creation by Cynthia G. Creel all rights reserved ©2013
Little yellow flowers remind me of school aged girls, when one does something many will follow. If we help our children to avoid a habit that takes so much from them plus others, we all win except the tobacco industry.
3-12-2013 all rights reserved ©2013 written permission is needed to duplicate
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of By Design or Cynthia G. Creel. Consultation of a medical professional is highly recommended before any changes are considered. This article is not saying anyone person or company is at fault for any one thing, it is just one possibility of many and is only speaking in general terms.
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Sources:
(1) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57575041/bloomberg-tobacco-initiative-slammed-by-n.y-convenience-stores/
(2) http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/jan/09_0023.htm
(3) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57574939/nyc-mayors-next-health-proposal-keep-tobacco-out-of-sight-in-stores/
(4) http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm
(5) http://lifeisgoodbydesign.blogspot.com/2013/03/keeping-your-smile-safe-500-million.html
(6) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5745a3.htm
(7) http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-abuse-addiction#references
(8) http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-abuse-addiction#references
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