Anti-smoking campaign - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1984 - 60 Pfennig

With »Smoking endangers health«, the Deutsche Bundespost is continuing its series of current postage stamp topics. The stamp should help to make the public more aware of the harmfulness of smoking. Tobacco products - in particular cigarettes - are recognized in our society as a recognized stimulant. 51% of men and 31% of women in the Federal Republic call themselves smoker. 20% of men and 6% of women even smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day. The offering of cigarettes is one of the social manners. For years, however, the harmfulness of cigarette smoking - especially the causality of certain cancers - statistically more accurately demonstrated. Groundbreaking was the 1964 published Terry Report. It is estimated that 50,000 people die annually from cancer in the Federal Republic because they smoked. The risk of a cigarette smoker from dying from lung cancer is 11 times higher than that of a non-smoker. According to a World Health Organization report on numerous studies in 13 different countries, it has been proven that the risk of dying from lung cancer increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Even a few cigarettes a day are harmful to your health. The widespread cardiovascular diseases are also caused by smoking to a large extent. Overall, smoking is the single most significant cause of many diseases. If smoking is started as early as in adolescence, the consequential damage is particularly pronounced due to the long period of exposure to pollutants. According to a new survey of more than 11,700 young people between the ages of 12 and 24, 39% of this age group smoke; 5% are heavy smokers who started smoking before the age of 15 and smoke more than 20 cigarettes per day (the average consumption of all smokers is 15 cigarettes per day). The special stamp is intended to draw the attention of young people to the danger of smoking. In order to ensure that the smoker is constantly and emphatically aware of the harmfulness to health of smoking, the Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health has prescribed by mandatory ordinance the indication of a warning on both the packs of cigarettes as well as cigars, cigarillos and smoking tobaccos with the following wording: »The Federal Minister of Health: Smoking endangers your health«. In addition, at the suggestion of the Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health, the cigarette industry has made agreements to restrict the advertising of cigarettes. After that, the warning will also appear on billboards and advertisements in newspapers and magazines. (Text: Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health, Bonn)