What is the smoke-free month?
In this month of November 2022, the Tobacco Free Month is back for the seventh year in a row! It is a national challenge for smokers to encourage them to try to quit. By registering on the Tobacco Free Month site, participants benefit from weaning support day after day, throughout the month of November.
And by the way, why the month of November?
The objective of Public Health France is to increase the incentives to quit smoking throughout the year. January and September are the months of good resolutions, May 31, World No Tobacco Day. An appointment was missing at the end of the year to arouse new interest in stopping smoking. It's as easy as that!
Concretely, what is the support?
Tobacco Free Month offers tools to make it easier to prepare for and stop smoking. These include a stop assistance kit available on the Tabac Info Service website and in pharmacies, the Tabac Info Service remote assistance device accessible at 39 89 (free service + price of a call), www.tabac-info-service.fr and via a Tabac Info Service smartphone application available on the App store and the Play store.
Fight against smoking
Tobacco smoke is a mixture of gases and particles. When cigarettes are smoked, 2,500 chemical compounds in unburned tobacco are transformed into more than 4,000 substances, many of which are toxic. Nicotine, tar, and flavoring agents are still found there, but there are many others, such as toxic gases and heavy metals.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco use kills more than 8.8 million people every year, more than 7.7 million through its direct consequences and around 1.2 million due to passive smoking. The leading cause of preventable mortality, cancer deaths and deaths before age 65, tobacco is responsible for nearly one in eight deaths in our country. La national health strategy And the Priority Prevention plan make tobacco control a top public health priority.
Reducing the risk of cancer
Smoking is a major cause of disease, associated with a very strong health impact on the health of populations. It is the number one preventable cause of death, with around 75,000 deaths estimated in 2015. On average, every second regular smoker dies from the consequences of smoking. One in three cancers is due to smoking. The best known is lung cancer, in which 80 to 90% of cases are linked to active smoking. But other cancers are also caused by tobacco: throat, mouth, lips, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, uterus. Esophageal cancer is more common when tobacco and alcohol are combined. Active smoking can also be the cause of cardiovascular diseases: smoking is one of the main risk factors for myocardial infarction. Strokes, lower limb arteritis, aneurysms, and high blood pressure are also linked, in part, to tobacco smoke.
Passive smoking: protecting loved ones
Passive smoking is the act of inhaling the smoke released by one or more smokers (coming from the smoke emitted by the combustion of the cigarette or that spewed out by smokers). Passive smoking can affect those around the smoker, the people he meets on a daily basis, but also the fetus in the womb, if the mother smokes. The tobacco epidemic causes more than 8 million deaths each year in the world. More than 7 million of them are consumers or former users, and about 1.2 million are non-smokers who are unintentionally exposed to smoke. Among other things, passive exposure to tobacco smoke increases the risk of:
- Asthma attacks in children
- Sudden infant death
- Coronary accidents
- Lung cancers
To combat this phenomenon, French law has evolved. The Évin law (or law of 10 January 1991 relating to the fight against smoking and alcoholism), banned cigarettes in public places as well as in transport. So smokers now have to go to specific places to smoke.
The solutions against tobacco
At the national level, several measures have been taken to combat tobacco use:
- An increase in the price of tobacco, which is a powerful deterrent to the entry into consumption and a strong motivation to encourage smokers to quit.
- The ban on smoking in public places and in transport
- The reimbursement of nicotine substitutes which, since 2018, are 65% reimbursable, like any medication, on prescription.
- The implementation of a social marketing strategy (month without tobacco, pictogram “pregnant woman” on the cigarette pack, slogan “smoking kills”...) in order to encourage and help smokers to quit, to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco among young people and to better inform pregnant women.
- The prohibition of all direct or indirect advertising in favor of tobacco and tobacco products.
- The 2018-2022 national tobacco control program which defines 28 actions to be implemented over the next five years.
To find out more, discover the anti-smoking provisions in France.
What are effective ways to quit smoking?
There are several ways to quit smoking: alone or with a side dish, all at once or gradually, with patches, chewing gums... It's up to everyone to choose the method that suits them best! However, more than nine times out of ten, willpower is not enough to stop smoking alone. It is therefore strongly recommended to be accompanied by health professionals. To help those concerned, Améli offers its Tips for quitting smoking. You can also discover the 9 tips from Tabac Info Service to choose the most appropriate strategy to stop.
Tobacco month in business
The objective of this month of November is to make as many people as possible aware of the harmful effects of tobacco, and to help those who wish to quit smoking. Businesses also have an important role to play in the fight against tobacco use.To support businesses in this process, OuiLive offers them to mobilize their teams via a connected Challenge. On the program: fun challenges, quizzes and surveys... A participatory and unifying event, centered around the public health themes of their choice.Do not wait any longer! Find our catalog of themes.
