‘Social environment for smoking changed’

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 23

‘Social environment for smoking changed’

PA Auckland “Social inoculation” has become important in the fight against some of today’s diseases, according to a visiting expert on public health. The effects of smoking, alcohol and other drug abuse are not as easy to prevent as malaria or polio, for example, according to Dr lan Newman, professor of public health at the University of Nebraska. Dr Newman said in Auckland that changing the physical environment was no longer enough. The attitudes and behaviour of people now had to be considered, he said. Fewer people were smoking. “There are fewer role models, there is less tolerance, there are more restrictions on when and where one may smoke,

there is greater willingness to object openly to another’s smoking,” Dr Newman said. “It is clear the social environment for smoking has changed dramatically in the last few years. “This change is the result of strategies to encourage and support a reduction in the number of smokers,” he said. In the United States, cigarette smoking declined dramatically in 1953 when the link between it and lung cancer was proved. It rose again until 1964 when a major Government health report came out. It declined, then started to rise again until 1968 when antismoking commercials started to appear on television.

At the same time, schools were improving their health education programmes and people were discouraging their

friends from smoking. However, Dr Newman said there was now an increasing use of chewing tobacco — equally as hazardous to health, causing oral and bowel cancer — 1 possibly because it was seen as less socially undesirable.

“It does have to be spat out though — and that is not attractive.”

Successful anti-smoking programmes among the young in the United States had relied on a social inoculation theory — that someone exposed early to persuasive arguments against smoking could develop a resistance to later persuasion to start.

Adolescents were told about the immediate physical harm; misconceptions were exposed; practical ways of resisting pressure to smoke were learned.