Role of Media in Tobacco Control -- World No-Tobacco Day, 1994
The mass media have played an important role in efforts to
control and prevent tobacco use. To recognize the effectiveness of
these efforts, the theme of the seventh World No-Tobacco Day, to be
held May 31, 1994, is "The Media and Tobacco: Getting the Health
Message Across." Activities will include press releases, videotape
presentations, educational symposia, and radio announcements by
World Health Organization experts on tobacco control.
The need for collaboration between public health workers and
media representatives is particularly urgent in developing
countries in which the prevalence of tobacco use is increasing. In
these countries, the dissemination of information through the media
also can assist in the development of educational and legislative
measures to prevent and control tobacco use (1,2) and may help
reduce the success of aggressive marketing campaigns by
transnational tobacco companies. Examples of collaboration between
the media and the tobacco-control groups in some countries include
successful smoking-cessation and health-education campaigns (e.g.,
in Estonia, Finland, and New Guinea) and decisions by certain media
to refuse cigarette advertising (e.g., in Australia, Canada, and
the United States).
Additional information about World No-Tobacco Day 1994 is
available from the Office of Information and Public Affairs, Pan
American Health Organization (telephone {202} 861-3458) or from
CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (telephone {404} 488-5705).
References
World Health Organization. World No-Tobacco Day -- 31 May 1994
{Advisory kit}. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1994.
National Cancer Institute. Strategies to control tobacco use in
the United States: a blueprint for public health action in the
1990's. Bethesda, Maryland: US Department of Health and Human
Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health,
1991; DHHS publication no. (NIH)92-3316.
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