Want a smoker to quit? Scare, shock or disgust him. That's what the U.S. government did with its first federally funded anti-smoking ad campaign and, new data suggest, it worked.
An estimated 1.6 million Americans tried to quit and at least 100,000 likely succeeded as a result of graphic ads that showed how real ex-smokers had suffered paralysis, stroke, lung removal, heart attacks and limb amputations, according to a study Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first round of ads ran from March through May in 2012, followed by a second one this past spring. A third round is planned for next year.
The CDC created the startling ads after consulting with smokers, who urged it to make the statistics about smoking — that it's the leading cause of preventable death and that it shortens life expectancy by 10 years — real. So it focused on the effects of smoking-related disease rather than the risk of death.
With subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance set to expire, Americans who rely on...
Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico also saw an...
A California jury on Friday awarded $40m to two women who said Johnson & Johnson’s baby...
