GIVING UP SMOKING

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29797, 13 April 1962, Page 10

GIVING UP SMOKING

Mutual Aid Proposed

The formation of groups of persons dedicated to helping each other to stop smoking, somewhat on the lines of Alcoholics Anonymous, was suggested yesterday by Professor J. W. Crofton, of the University of Edinburgh. “Giving up smoking is hard for the true addict.” said Professor Crofton. “When he is deprived .if tobacco he often gets shaky and nervy and altogether into a frightful condition, a little reminiscent of the opium addict deprived of opium.

“In dealing with patients in our university hospital who are forced to give up tobacco because of chronic bronchitis or some other disease. we often find it helpj tremendously if they can compare notes on their progress with others in a similar position. “The same idea might well be carried over into the community at large, now that the link between smoking and lung-cancer has been so strongly established.” he said. In fact. I have heard that an organisation is already operating on these lines in Sweden, and that one it being formed in England. The comparison with Alcoholics Anonymous is not altogether valid, of course, because the socially disrupting effects of alcoholism make that condition so much more serious; but this lung cancer business is serious enough to warrant some major effort. “Where a husband and wife or close friends are heavy smokers, they will find it easier to give up smoking together rather than each separately,” Professor Crofton said.