Fear of impotence and wrinkles drive smokers to quit

Here is some basic information about some of the numerous dangers of smoking:

. Scientists say that the average smoker will lose 14 years of their life because of smoking.
. Smokers are twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack in comparison to their non-smoking counterparts.
. Smoking has been proven to be directly responsible for many types of cancer including: throat, lung, kidney, bladder, stomach, liver and cervix.
. Smoking accounts for 71% of all lung cancer deaths.

Now, you’d be forgiven for thinking these reasons alone would be enough of a deterrent for smoking and perhaps persuade current smokers into quitting smoking to improve their long-term health.

New research would suggest however this isn’t the case at all and it is in fact vanity/self-preservation motivations that are the reasons behind people kicking the deadly habit into touch rather than the worry of a premature death.  Indeed, there still remains an estimated 10 million Brits who are addicted to smoking, which should not be the case when there is smoking cessation medication available such as Champix that can help them quit for good, saving potentially thousands of pounds a year and adding years onto their life.

Despite the government’s best efforts to get people to stop smoking via steep increases in cigarette taxation and increasingly more graphic warnings and images being plastered on cigarette packets, for men it is the worry of impotency and a loss of sex drive that urges them to quit smoking.  Whilst it would seem women are concerned about cigarettes accelerating the aging process and giving them wrinkles, laugh lines and dreaded ‘crow’s feet’.

Stirling University’s Brian Williams, professor of Behavioural & Health Services Research, commented on his team’s research, saying: “Eight out of ten smokers want to quit. Targeting groups with images of issues that relate directly to their own concerns can have most effect. If we know one brand has a certain market – among say women – it would allow us to design images that were tailored to that particular demographic, say on looks or fertility. It is what advertisers do as well.”

Professor Williams and colleagues scrutinised answers given from around 19,000 people who completed a UK-wide online survey about their thoughts/reactions to graphic images printed on cigarette packaging.

It was found that there were three particular images that struck a chord with respondents due to their shock factor. A neck tumour image was found to be the most powerful, with 80% admitting this had affected them. Second was diseased teeth at 77%, and diseased lungs was third most powerful, with 72% saying this had upset them.

Interestingly, researchers observed that particular images seemed to have a bigger impact on certain age and gender groups differently than others.

For instance, the study found that female smokers were considerably more affected by all three images regarding aging in comparison to male counterparts. Images related to pregnancy and children also had a bigger impact on women compared to the male smokers.

The study report added: “Men were consistently more affected by the images relating to sexual performance/impotence. Images relating to heart and lung disease as a consequence of smoking were most effective amongst over-50s. Students and professionals were more affected by cosmetic issues than those who were unemployed or retired, possibly due to the impact of damage to their appearance caused by smoking. Most of the images relating to fertility, impotence and pregnancy > had a significantly greater effect on the 16-39 age group. The closer the characteristics of both the narrative and visual > forms match those of the viewer the greater the likely impact on risk representations.”

The report concluded: “This suggests that, as specific images have a more persuasive effect on particular groups, it may be worth considering a targeted approach to anti-smoking messages, placing appropriate images on brands known to be purchased by young, adult and older smokers.”
Professor Williams believes that smokers may not quit with shock tactics alone. He said: “What we are missing at the moment is images and messages on cigarette packets that encourage people to take the next step; that it is possible to give up.”

Smoking app shows how our looks can be affected by cigarettes

Have you ever wanted a sneak peek into the future and see how you could appear in years to come? Well now you can with the help of a new smartphone app that gives smokers the chance to take a deep breath and potentially be horrified at how cigarettes will destroy their looks if they do not quit smoking.

The new app, available for free on Android and iPhone, has been devised by the NHS and goes by the name of ‘The Smoking Time Machine’. It could be viewed as a clever and original method of persuading youngsters not to start pumping into their bodies the 4,000 chemicals that are contained in just a single cigarette. The app may also persuade current smokers to quit if they are shocked at how their looks will be severely ravaged in the near future.

Kate Norman, from Cumbria Partnership NHS Trust, who was responsible for the free app in conjunction with its month-long stop smoking campaign, said: “Young people – and teenagers especially – don’t necessarily think the obvious consequences of smoking such as cancer and lung disease is going to happen to them. But this app uses their face and shows them how they will look. It’s something that is very close to home and hard to ignore.”

Merely by using a photograph of your face, the app will age your appearance to depict the damaging effects in 20 years’ time if you smoke, or continue to carry on the habit. The altered picture then shows the user to have an unhealthy, grey appearance to the skin, significantly deeper wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, and longer jowls. The pictures may be stored and shared amongst friends as a small reminder of what damage cigarettes will do to their current younger and fresher appearance.

Forensic artist Auriole Prince of digital marketing company ‘Change my Face’, commented: “This is the first time Smoking Time Machine has been used in a public health campaign and we think the app works brilliantly as a shock tactic to show people what will happen to their appearance if they carry on smoking.”

The literature produced by Cumbria Partnership NHS Trust will further worry smokers when they read it and learn that the same chemicals contained in cigarettes are also in highly hazardous substances such as jet fuel, embalming fluid, bleach and rat poison!

The Trust’s research discovered that around 40% of frequent smokers manage to develop an addiction prior to the age of 16. Therefore, the shock element of this new smartphone could have an impact with image-conscious teenagers.

For all smokers over the age of 18, why not quit smoking today with the help of the smoking cessation medication Champix, and help to prevent the degradation of your looks! All you have to do is complete the simple four-step online questionnaire, and if the online consultation is approved by one of our Doctors, they will write a prescription that will be dispensed by our in-house pharmacy team, dispatched to you at your home, your place of work, or where ever you choose, discreetly within 24 hours. The medication equates to just £75.00 per pack.

Cigarette packets to have larger health warnings

The European Union (EU) plan to introduce legislation prohibiting the sale of flavoured cigarettes, such as menthol. The EU wants to also make it mandatory for cigarette manufacturers to cover at least 75% of a packet of cigarettes with various health warnings for consumers. The aims will be the latest effort to discourage young people from starting smoking by making them more aware of the damage they are doing to their health, in addition to saving billions of pounds in the long-term with reduced diseases and hospital visits as a result of smoking-induced health conditions. Fortunately for older smokers, they will still be able to carry on enjoying flavoured pipe tobacco.

The proposed rules though do not go quite as far as those that came into play earlier this month in Australia, whereby all packets now have to be sold in plain packaging and carry graphic health warnings. However, governments in Britain and other countries will be given the go-ahead to enforce a similar policy should they wish.

The Changes will likely enrage tobacco companies who have already witness a sharp declined in cigarette sales in recent years and will fear that the stricter rules will hit their profits even more so and also effect markets in Asia and Africa.

Cigarette sales in the 27-nation EU bloc have decreased quite a lot over the last few years as more people are starting to realise the damages to health that smoking can do, and that it is just not worth it. Just some of the problems directly related to smoking include:

. Smoking accounts for 71% of all lung cancer deaths.
Smoking has been proven to be directly responsible for many types of cancer including: throat, lung, kidney, bladder, stomach, liver and cervix.
. Smokers are twice as likely to suffer from a heart attack in comparison to their non-smoking counterparts.
. Scientists say that the average smoker will lose 14 years of their life because of smoking.
. Sugar approximates to about 20% of a cigarette and many diabetics are unaware of this fact.
. Smoking not only increases the risk of a man being impotent, but it also damages sperm.
. Smokers who are also taking the contraceptive pill are about 20 times more likely to have a heart attack than someone who doesn’t smoke.
. Smokers are twice as likely to develop psoriasis as a non-smoker. Psoriasis is a common skin problem that results in patches of inflamed skin.
. Nicotine slows down your body’s ability to heal itself by dehydrating your skin.

Draft legislation for the proposed changes state: “Each unit packet shall carry combined health warnings (picture plus text). The combined warnings shall cover 75 per cent of the external area of both the front and back surface of the packet. However, a member state may maintain more stringent national provisions on grounds of overriding needs relating to the protection of public health.”
It is expected that cigarette companies will not go down without a fight though and already some have criticised the EU’s plans, arguing that graphic pictures showing the shocking effects of smoking will harm famous long-standing brands.

In fact, Reemtsma, the German subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco, has already hit out at the EU, blasting that the larger-scale warnings do not include new information for consumers and long established trademarks will be destroyed.

A spokesman for Reemtsma said: “Under the German constitution this is a major breach of our property rights and trademarks. It will not stop with tobacco, it will move on to alcohol and sweets. Anyone who can read knows the implied risks of smoking and existing health warnings are very clear. This is a step to a health dictatorship. Is that the future we want?”

Medical Specialists Pharmacy support the EU changes and we have reported on countless studies that have shown the awful detrimental impact that smoking just one cigarette each day can do to the body. This is summed up with the response from a European Commission spokesman in relation to the concerns about the legislation. The spokesman said: “We are aware of the concerns. Everything has been double-checked for the legal position and we can do it. Let’s not forget that 700,000 people die every year because of smoking.”