New anti-tobacco initiatives in the state of New York

Published on February 19, 2008 4:28 AM

In the past, the state of New York was the leader in anti-tobacco health policies, but with time the state became obsolete in countering tobacco advertising messages and helping inhabitants quit smoking.

Dr. Richard F. Daines, a quondam hospital internist, who now became the state’s most powerful health governor, decided to bring back the anti-tobacco law to New York. Dr. Daines such a decision after seeing the fatal effects of smoking on his patients.

Daines wants to elaborate a plan in on reducing tobacco use. He wants to organize anti-smoking campaigns with the help of $85 million from state budget.

"I’m a father, I’m a doctor, I’m a Mormon, so I’m really anti-tobacco," said Dr. Richard F. Daines, the state’s health commissioner.

Dr. Richard F. Daines has a goal of reducing the number of smokers by 1 million - to 2 million - people by 2010. Daines states that according to a research most deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco smoking.

Other goals that Dr. Richard F. Daines wants to reach are reducing the tobacco use in public areas and limiting advertising where the cigarettes are sold.

He plans to force Hollywood to restrict movie scenes depicting smoking, because, he believes, such scenes popularize tobacco smoking among young adults.

"Knocking people the head in some way is necessary," he said, to make some smokers quit.

Daines also wants his colleagues to be more active in helping their patients quit smoking. "We need more efforts from the medical community," Daines said.

"We are really trying to reach smokers everywhere it is possible," Ursula Bauer, the state’s tobacco control program director, commented on the efforts to make smokers quit and teenagers not to start smoking.