Recommendations for reducing tobacco use

Tobacco users can:

  • Quit.

    • The sooner you quit, the sooner your body can begin to heal,and the less likely you are to get sick from tobacco use.

  • Ask a health care provider for help quitting and call 1-800-QUIT-NOW for free assistance.

  • Find a step-by-step quit guide at www.smokefree.gov.

State and community leaders can:

  • Fund comprehensive tobacco control programs at CDC-recommended levels.

  • Enact 100 percent smoke-free indoor air policies that include workplaces, restaurantsand bars.

  • Increase the price of all tobacco products.

  • Implement hard-hitting media campaigns that raise public awareness of the dangers of tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure.

  • Use the World Health Organization's MPOWER strategies to prevent and reduce tobacco use and to make tobacco products less accessible, affordable, attractive and accepted:

    • M = Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies.

    • P = Protect people from tobacco smoke.

    • O = Offer help to quit.

    • W = Warn about the dangers of tobacco use.

    • E = Enforce restrictions on tobacco advertising.

    • R = Raise taxes on tobacco.

Parents and nonsmokers can:

  • Make your home and vehicles smoke-free.

  • Not start, if you aren't already using tobacco.

  • Quit if you smoke.

    • Children of parents who smoke are twice as likely to become smokers.

  • Teach children about the health risks of smoking and secondhand smoke.

  • Encourage friends, family and co-workers to quit.

Health care providers can:

  • Ask their patients if they use tobacco.

    • If they do, help them quit.

  • Refer patients interested in quitting to 1-800-QUIT-NOW, smokefree.gov or other resources.

  • Advise all patients to make their homes and vehicles 100 percent smoke-free.

  • Advise nonsmokers to avoid secondhand smoke exposure.

Employers can:

  • Establish a policy banning the use of any tobacco product indoors or outdoors on company property by anyone at any time.

  • Provide all employees and their dependents with health insurance that covers support for quitting with little or no co-payment.

Retailers can:

  • Learn the new Food and Drug Administration restrictions on youth access to tobacco products and tobacco marketing to youth, and closely follow them.

  • Follow state laws.

  • Never sell any tobacco product to customers younger than 18 (or 19 in states with a higher minimum age requirement).

  • Check the photo ID of any customer trying to buy tobacco products who appears to be 26 or younger.