The “Month without tobacco”, a public health operation that takes place every November in France to encourage smokers to quit, will start on Tuesday.
“Each year, this event is an opportunity for smokers to join a collective movement that invites them to participate together in a process to quit smoking for a month,” the French public health agency recalled in a press release.
A collective challenge
“No Tobacco Month” has returned every November in France since 2016, with health authorities modeled after a similar operation in the UK.
The advantage is twofold. The smoker is not alone in trying to quit, as he knows that many other people are participating in the challenge. And if it lasts all month, that’s enough to give you a good chance of not smoking again afterwards.
“Quitting smoking for 30 days multiplies by five the chances of quitting permanently,” estimates Public Health France.
run out of steam
But, after several years of success, the operation finds less and less echo, while tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable mortality, killing 75,000 people in France each year.
Last year, just over 110,000 people registered online for No Tobacco Month, compared to 125,000 in 2020 and more than 200,000 in 2019.
In a conference given this year, experts from Public Health France had given several hypotheses for this slowdown: on the one hand, the context linked to Covid with a “multiplication of health messages” but also a “device shortness of breath after six years”. “.
Despite this context, this year’s edition includes few new features and remains based on the tools of previous years. Along with an advertising campaign, Public Health France mainly offers a free helpline, on 39 89, and a support application, the tobacco information service.
Source: BFM TV
