Smoke Screen
Ukraine ranks among the top twenty countries with the highest rate of smoking. Every year we smoke 1.5% of the cigarettes manufactured worldwide, even though our population comprises a mere 0.85% of the world’s population. One-third of working-age adults cannot imagine a day without smoking, and every year 120,000 Ukrainians die because of diseases caused by smoking. These topics are often discussed in this country, and increasing attention is being focused on the causes and possible solutions to this problem. Two months after Ukraine signed the framework convention on tobacco control, local sociologists began talking with smokers and anti-smoking advocates in order to learn why Ukraine is a country of chain-smokers and how to fight the smoking epidemic. The National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences’ Institute for Social and Political Psychology conducted a study in cooperation with such organizations as the International Tobacco Control Program, the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative, and the American Cancer Society. The study involved 2,008 respondents from every region of Ukraine, who answered a variety of questions. The results were summarized and processed using focus group research methods.
The Day asked Iryna KOLOMIYETS, one of the project heads and executive manager of the non-profit Institute for a Liberal Society, to sum up these sociological findings.
I.K.: International practice shows that legislation is the main tool with which to combat smoking. The government must assume responsibility for the annual mortality rate linked to smoking. There are a number of issues still left unresolved in Ukraine. The process may require extremely complicated procedures, as the domestic tobacco industry (with 95% of the market corned by five large transnational companies) has a lot of clout with the executive levels of government. The tobacco lobby is the most powerful one in the country. Annual estimated revenues total UAH 6-8 billion, and this money is regularly transferred abroad. So local tobacco companies can afford what is known as aggressive advertising that targets teenagers by making smoking look attractive, and easing access to tobacco products.
Meaning that the tobacco companies and this kind of advertising are to blame?
I.K.: I wouldn’t be so categorical. However, our poll results tend to make you think along these lines. For example, some 60% of respondents believe that advertising of tobacco products should be prohibited, and most smokers and non-smokers (82% and 71%, respectively) agree that the government should take measures to prevent smuggling and the illicit trade in these products. Most respondents also want complete disclosure of data on the chemicals used in the manufacture of all tobacco products — in fact, 74% of younger respondents want this kind of information. At the same time, we know that the manufacturers most often don’t even know exactly what ingredients are being used. One reason is the absence of proper legislation.
Some experts believe that banning smoking in public places and raising the price of cigarettes — radical measures envisaged by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — may decrease the number of habitual smokers. What do you think?
I.K.: I don’t think that raising prices will have any positive effects, unless we double the prices — that would definitely have a very noticeable effect. Otherwise, the only possible changes could be brand ratings, so there would be greater demand for inexpensive brands than expensive ones. Furthermore, even habitual smokers say that smoking should be banned in public places. Our poll shows that Ukrainians regard this method as the most effective one in combating smoking. True, most of these responses came from women aged over 50. As a matter of fact, the current Law of Ukraine “On the State Regulation of the Manufacture and Circulation of Ethyl, Cognac, and Fruit Alcohol, Alcoholic Beverages, and Tobacco Products” has a clause protecting the right of non-smokers to a smoke-free environment. Under this law, local self-governing agencies have the right to set up non-smoking areas, but so far none of them seem to be in any hurry to implement this right. One positive example is Cherkasy, where the local community initiated and supported the city council’s decision to ban smoking in public places. In other words, knowledge coupled with initiative at the local level can serve as a very effective method for combating smoking.
What about all those anti- smoking campaigns? Do you think they help?
I.K.: No, not at their current level, not at all. Ukraine has a high awareness of the hazards of smoking. At the same time, the level of public confidence is rather low. Thus, only 14% of smokers are aware of the health risks involved; the rest believe that ten cigarettes a day can’t have a negative effect on their system. During the work of the focus groups, no one could think of a single person who had kicked the habit because of a non-smoking campaign. Posters, billboards, and warnings on cigarette packages stating, “Smoking can be hazardous to your health,” are not considered convincing proof. After all, we know that the oldest woman on the planet is a smoker. Likewise, billboards with the health ministry’s warnings that smoking may cause malignant tumors spark no reaction whatsoever. Unlike tobacco companies’ ads and commercials, these admonitions are static. Anti-smoking slogans are lost in the flood of tobacco company advertising. Our respondents say that the main reason is that our government is not interested in cutting down on tobacco manufacturing. Tobacco products are cheap, and it’s easy to buy a couple of cigarettes instead of a pack, which means that cigarettes are very accessible to minors. We are surrounded by positive images of smokers in television commercials and movies; they are present in our domestic cinema and literature. Perhaps the only exception is animated cartoons. The result: our younger generation sees a male smoker as a positive hero, like the shrewd Sherlock Holmes, the unruffled Stierlitz [the hero of the immensely popular Soviet television serial “Seventeen Moments of Spring,” about a WWII Soviet intelligence officer who infiltrates the highest echelons of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS—(Trans.), or a regular teenager.
What kind of anti-smoking campaigns should be waged? Or should they be discarded because they’re ineffective?
I.K.: These kinds of campaigns are very important, but they have to be emotional. Ads and commercials must inspire fear or a desire to change something in one’s life. Slogans like “Take Care of Your Loved One’s Health” or “Do This For Your Own Good” make a person think things over.
What other non-smoking vehicles could you suggest?
I.K.: An effective non-smoking policy should include a series of coordinated measures. In the first place, we would need the right kind of legislation. Consider advertising. The law says that advertising tobacco products cannot form the public’s opinion that this is an important factor in athletic, social, sexual, and other achievements in life; that smoking can help solve your personal problems; that people should be encouraged to smoke, or that anti-smoking campaigning should be regarded as a negative social factor. But what do we actually see — cigarette ads and commercials, done in a professional and enticing way, which trigger a positive public response. What I mean is that we must enact laws banning all kinds of tobacco advertising, all kinds of sponsorship, and tobacco propaganda. Contrary to statements made by certain experts, most Ukrainians support such measures, including a ban on smoking in public places, even in apartment building doorways, underground passages, public gardens and parks. Our recommendations, based on the results of the poll, include tough legal punishments for failing to observe advertising restrictions, including the sale of tobacco products to minors. We further recommended adding specific medical warnings to the general smoking-hazard warnings on every pack of cigarettes. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control emphasizes that such warnings must occupy at least 30% of all sides of a cigarette pack. Polls show that some 40% of smokers would like to see such warnings occupying 50% of cigarette packaging.
It’s important not to forget media blitzes, when the media goes all out to disseminate information on the hazardous effects of smoking. In the US 30% of all smokers kicked the habit after a series of three media blitzes conducted between 1930 and 1970.
