SA Smoking Survey goes live

The South African National Smoking Survey 2011 has launched and gone live on the country’s biggest online health portal, Health24.com.

The survey, running for the third year, is now endorsed by the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) in association with Health24.com and is sponsored by Nicorette, a leading provider of Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) in South Africa.

The survey aims to track smoking related trends from the perspective of South African smokers as well as non-smokers.

Says Magdalene Seguin, Clinical Specialist at CANSA, “the survey will help to identify and track trends relating to tobacco products control legislation, stopping smoking and general views on smoking through a series of selected questions”.

R1000 per celeb survey
This year, the survey has an added interesting component - celebrities will be approached to complete the survey.

For each completed survey, Nicorette will donate R1000 to CANSA. Several South African celebrities and personalities, including radio DJ’s Bailey Schneider, Kevin Fine and DJ Lady Lea, comedian Dave Levinson, musician Heinz Winkler, cricketer Dale Steyn and his actress girlfriend, Jeanne Kietzmann are on board to give public support for the campaign.

Last year, the Survey had close to 8 000 participants, an increase of 22% from 2009. A total of 35% of survey participants were smokers, and a whopping 79% were between the ages of 15 and 19 years old when they started smoking. A further 52% of smokers cited stress as the main reason for smoking, while 44% said they do it because they enjoyed smoking.

15 000 lives lost per year
Worldwide 15 000 people die from diseases caused by tobacco use every single day, making it the second cause of death globally after hypertension. In South Africa about 23% of adults currently smoke cigarettes, resulting in 125 deaths every day or 44 400 deaths a year.

Reducing the incidence of smoking from 23% to 5% in the next three decades is possible but will require an intensification of tobacco control campaigns and education on the harmful effects.

Complete the survey

- Adapted for Health24 from a press release by  Redline, a division of DRAFTFCB South Africa

For further comment / information, kindly contact:
Magdalene Seguin
Clinical Specialist: CANSA
011 616 7662

Or

Vanessa Sew Chung Hong
Brand Manager: Nicorette
Contact: 021 710 4330