Smoking Rate Down to 20 Percent in Canada
Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 09:00 CDT
Smoking rate down to 20 percent in Canada
OTTAWA, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Higher tobacco taxes, constant health warnings and laws to restrict smoking areas have worked effectively to reduce the smoking rate in Canada to 20 percent last year, compared with 30 percent during 1990s.
Smoking rate among young women also dropped sharply, to 25 percent in 2004 compared with 30 percent in 2003, the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey from Statistics Canada revealed Thursday.
Dr. Murray Kaiserman, director of research, surveillance and evaluation at the agency, said the decline is "exciting news" given how things stood four years ago.
"I would say it's quite a quick drop. At that time, we were probably faced with a resistant core of smokers, we didn't have many of the policies we have in place today. And we predicted taking 10 years to reach this level."
Francis Thompson, policy analyst with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, attributes the decline in the overall smoking rate to the policies of various governments.
"We've seen large increases in tobacco taxes, we've seen big new health warnings on cigarette packs ... and most recently we've seen a series of provincial laws on smoking in workplaces, in particular in bars and restaurants that have been really very good. "
There have also been restrictions on promotions and the display of cigarette packs at point of sale in some areas, he noted.
Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh said that despite the good news, much remains to be done to win the battle of the butt.
He noted that there were still 5.1 million Canadians over age 15 who smoked in 2004. Statistics from the Health Ministry showed that more than 45,000 people are estimated to die prematurely this year in Canada due to tobacco use.
Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer Society suggested raising tobacco taxes further.
Taxes should rise by at least 10 dollars per carton of 200 cigarettes to counter price cuts by manufacturers for their so- called discount brands, he said.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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User Comments (1)
| 1. |
Posted by Christina on 03/30/2009, 22:56 Okay this is retarted. Sorry. I am in grade 8 and I am doing a speech on second hand smoking. I need the percentage of how many people smoke in CANADA in 2008 or '09 and what is this? 2005? ugh. UPDATE! |
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