Tobacco Restrictions

A major effort has long been underway to curb the world's use of smoking tobacco. State and federal laws increasingly restrict where people can smoke, and taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products are higher than ever. Study after study shows a link between smoking and a host of health problems, including heart disease, lung disease andcancer: 1 in 10 adults -- more than five million per year -- dies from tobacco-related illnesses [source:World Health Organization].
Tobacco advertising has come under close scrutiny -- and very strict regulation -- in the United States in recent decades. But a
there are myths that abound among smokers: that so-called "light" cigarettes are less harmful than others, or that certain brands of cigarette aren't as dangerous as other brands. This attitude may keep them smoking longer, as they switch to "safer" cigarettes, rather than quitting, to try to avoid the health consequences of their addictions [source: The Partnership at Drugfree.org].

Research has suggested that, worldwide, tobacco advertising plays a role in the number of people who start or stop smoking. This is not news for public health officials, who, in many nations, began fighting smoking-related illness by restricting tobacco advertising. A 1975 ban on tobacco advertising in Norway, for example, helped reduce long-term smoking prevalence in that nation by 9 percent [source: Willemsen].
Tobacco advertising in the U.S. came under heavy scrutiny in the late 1990s, when internal tobacco-industry memos suggested that companies may have been targeting potential new smokers -- young adults -- through the use of colorful, catchy ads with stylish cartoon characters, such as Joe Camel. After a series of major court rulings found that the companies bore responsibility for the effects of their products, a portion of the funding that once went into creating these ads was redirected to fund public health and smoking-cessation programs, including ad campaigns encouraging...