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.
The Trump administration is facing a legal complaint from a group of government employees affected by...
Eileen Schoch traveled to her mother's funeral in Asheville, N.C. and found the hotel room —...
The Department of Health and Human Services is freezing all childcare payments to all states, an...
US regulators on Monday gave the green light to a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss...
