Heena Sharma Blog

Graphic warning labels on cigarette ads, which contain images such as bleeding, cancerous gums and lips, can effectively deter children from smoking, a study has found. Such labels cancel out the effect of ads that prompt children to think of smoking as cool, rebellious and fun, according to a study published in the journal Health Education Research. "This study suggests the value of graphic warning labels extends beyond just getting people to have more negative feeling about smoking," said Jeff Niederdeppe, an associate professor at Cornell University in the US. "It also seems to have the added benefit of reducing the influence of 'social cue' ads that entice young people to want to smoke in the first place," said Niederdeppe. Researchers studied the graphic warning labels' effect on 451 adult smokers and 474 middle schoolers in rural and urban low-income communities in the Northeast. Read More Business Standard

Here's another reason to stop smoking when pregnant! A recent study has linked earlier puberty in children with mother's smoking during pregnancy . The Aarhus University study has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. "We found that children of mothers who had smoked more than ten cigarettes a day during pregnancy, on average entered puberty three to six months earlier than the children of non-smokers," says Nis Brix, who is one of the researchers behind the study. "Early puberty can be associated with an increased risk of a number of diseases as an adult, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer," said Nis Brix. Brix hopes that the study's results can be used as another motivating factor to stop smoking among women who are planning on becoming pregnant. "It is known that smoking is harmful to the unborn foetus . Smoking is, among other things, associated with an in

Turns out, E-cigarettes can indeed help people give up smoking faster than any other methods out there. A recent study by the University of Exeter and University of Melbourne and funded by Cancer Research UK, confirmed that in order to stop people from smoking, e-cigarettes should be advertised more openly. The study appeared in the Harm Reduction Journal . Hannah Farrimond, from the University of Exeter, who led the research said, "There are real opportunities for stop smoking services to use e-cigarettes more actively to help people give up smoking, but for this to happen policies around the country need to be consistent, and people need to share best practice and know what others are doing." Farrimond further mentioned that for the smoking cessation work to succeed the initiative should go beyond specialist clinics where only a few smokers go to. Experts believe that this initiative should support smoking cessation in psychiatric units, community ment