Final Researchh.

Last week on my post, I said I wanted to know what some companies are doing to reduce the amount of teens smoking. I went to Google and found this article on MSN. I also found some useful info on Wikipedia. Hope you enjoy!

A couple of months ago, some representants of more than 35 US states asked movie companies to include ads against smoking in DVDs and videos. They did this because most teens watch DVDs and videos so it would be a good way to advertise not smoking. More than 73% of movies teens watch include actors smoking, so the ads would be a good idea. The anti-smoking commercials will come out in the next months probably.

Goverments of many countries are also doing things to prevent teen smoking. In most countries, such as Australia, Brazil, and Canada, the selling of tobacco products to underage persons is forbidden and it could result in jail or with a fine. It is also forbidden for an adult to buy tobacco and then give it to a kid. In most US states, the minimum age to buy cigarretes is 18, while in others it is 19. In countries such as China and Turkey, though, kids and teens don't have many problems with buying tobacco because their parents tell them to go to the store and buy it for them.

A new thing some goverments are doing is raising taxes on smoking. Some of the tax money is destined to anti-smoking programs in schools or other places. This helps a lot the community and stops some people from buying tobacco. In some countries with high taxes for smoke, such as the UK, each pack of cigarretes costs around $10.70, goverments from other countries, though, don’t raise their taxes at all, and no improvement is being done. The problem with that country is that some sellers avoid the taxes so people buy their products. It is estimated that more than one third of the smokers in UK don't pay tobacco taxes.

In some countries, there are no smoking ads on television, magazines, etc. Also cigarrete packs come with warnings and ways to quit smoking. If cigarrete companies don't include that, then they can be banned from the market. Some commercials in TV have impacting images of people with brown teeths, smokers in the hospital with respiratory problems, damaged body tissues, annual death rates, and more. This has decreased the number of smokers by 25% because people realize they don’t want those things to happen in their bodies and they react.

Finally, many American and European countries make places were smoking is forbidden. Some of these places include restaurants, bars, gas stations, hospitals, etc. This is made so second-hand smoking is reduced. Second-hand smoking is when smoking gases are recieved by the person near the smoker and he or she is affected aswell. Second-hand smoking problems include asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Well, that was my last research for the Teen Life Project to use in my documentary. Hope you liked it! Bye!!! :P xD