Govts ‘must establish anti-smoking clinics’

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 6

Govts ‘must establish anti-smoking clinics’

) NZPA New York ) Smokers of the world , spend SUSIOOO million a year for four trillion cigarettes, it has been reported at . opening sessions of an international “stop-smoking” )) conference in New York. .1 To help them stop, "for, i| health’s sake,” Dr Jerome !; Schwartz said every country! )l needs to open networks of I , withdrawal centres offering) ‘ a smorgasbord of quitting! therapies — from self-care to hvpnosis and behaviour modification. Dr Schwartz, chairman of the three-day meeting sponsored by the World Health Organisation, the American Cancer Society, and the national Union Against Cancer, also suggested that smokers pay higher healthinsurance premiums. That smokers can be 1 helned to snuff off the habit

< has been proved by voluntary programmes, according 1 to Dr Schwartz, research t specialist from the Califor- ■ nia Department of Health. 1 “Except in a few couni tries. Governments have not ’ supported auit-smoking cliniics,” he said. !•; “But it is the governments! >.; which must commit public i qresources to set up health-; I promotion centres where; ;) persons can select a ciga-) [lrette withdrawal method.” I ;i Dr Schwartz says that ■ smoking is on the rise in developing and non-Westem ’ countries, with popularity • linked to an impression that cigarettes represent af- : fluence. ; Dr Schwartz charged that! the United States Govern-) ment "carries out a balanc-) ling act with regard to to-!! Jbacco. “Large subsidies given too

• tobacco fanners, the Food for Peace programme which i provides aid to developing countries in the form of tobacco can be contrasted with ■ the small budget to the National Clearing House for Smoking and Health.” he said. In countries in which the ; Government has a cigarette ■ monopoly, such as the Soviet Union, China, and Japan, Dr Schwartz says I rates of smoking are "exjtremely high.” ; “These three Government tobacco ‘ monopolies, along with the IJritish-American Tobacco Company, are the four largest cigarette proiducers in the world,” he 1 said. ) “It is ironic that China ! and the Soviet Union boast about their emphasis on preventive medicine but do very little about dis‘couragmg smoking.”