And where are you with the cigarette? Since November 1st, the 9th “No Tobacco Month” has begun, a major public health operation which aims to continually reduce cigarette consumption. With successes but also, and despite everything, resistance. For a month, the partners in this operation, which are hospitals, addiction centers, health establishments and other health actors in schools and universities, offer tools and monitoring to achieve the objective.
Cigarette use decreasing but still present
To quit tobacco free month is not a necessity but it can provide that extra spark of motivation. Knowing that the biggest challenge for anti-smoking public health policies now is trying to convince… even those who are not convinced. According to Public Health France, in 2021 the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region still had 25% of daily smokers among 18-75 year olds. According to the Escapad survey by the French Observatory on Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), 15% of young people aged 17 were daily tobacco users in 2022 in our region. This is much less than in 2011, when they were still 33.3%, but young people remain one of the priorities of the ARS regional anti-tobacco plan 2024-2027 (Regional health agency). In 2015, according to the most recent figures available on the platform Geodes8,242 deaths could be attributed to tobacco in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, including 2,427 deaths classified as “premature”.
Between corporate name and lack of will
In the streets of Grenoble, the testimonies of some smokers explain the failure to quit or the failure to quit smoking. “I tried and lasted 6 months, explains this thirty-year-old sitting at a table with friends, but I have a love of terraces and it's complicated to come back to the terrace and not smoke. This is the social side of it.“. She has less to worry about when she is at home. Same speech from this young woman of 22 years old on a cigarette break: “I tried twice a month without cigarettes because my school offered it but I couldn't keep it up. I ate a lot and gained weight but then we go out and see others smoking or smell the smell makes you break down.“Others flat out concede that they didn't try.”At least not seriously“this man slides onto the terrace, who still concedes that the price of tobacco”makes you think“.
A little further on, this 28-year-old young man tries to analyze the why of his consumption even though he is well aware of the health risks. “Addiction is already a barrier to quitting cigaretteshe explains, and even if there are things and devices to help you have to take the step and it's not easy because like in any addiction I think that once you get into it you are in a certain comfort and it's always difficult to get out of your comfort zone“.
Who quits or tries to quit smoking?
In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes an “epidemic point” from Public Health France in 2021 reported that “the prevalence of daily smoking is much higher among people without a diploma or with a diploma below the baccalaureate […] people who are unemployed […] and people with low income“. The desire to quit smoking is more often expressed among men over 35, particularly for financial reasons. Attempts to quit during the year are more often made by men. under 35 years old with a diploma level greater than or equal to the baccalaureate. The summary notes on the other hand that “the urge and attempts to stop are significantly less frequent among women, although the differences remain modest“. The fact remains that tobacco consumption decreased very significantly during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century in France, under the effect of various policies (Evin law, action on price tobacco, tobacco-free month…).
Tobacco, a former industry in Isère
A trend which, in Isère, is also seen in the virtual disappearance of tobacco producers. In 1932 Gaston Letonnelier, wrote in the Alpine Geography Review that Isère was the 5th French department in terms of tobacco production with approximately “550 hectares“. In 1961 television report from ORTF noted that “the Rhône-Alpes region with its 1130 ha planted with tobacco is the 3rd in France (after Périgord and Alsace), mainly in the north of Drôme – 300 ha and in the south of Isère – 720 ha, and secondarily in the south of Ain thanks to clay-limestone soils favorable to tobacco cultivation“. It was particularly in Nord-Isère and the Beaurepaire sector that this culture was widespread and peaked in the 70s and 80s. Agritabac, one of the largest producers' cooperatives, had its headquarters in La Tour-du- Pin. In 2019, tobacco cultivation declarations in Isère concerned barely 52 hectares.
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