Tobacco taxes and smoking bans haven’t budged the U.S. smoking rate in years. Now the government is trying to shock smokers into quitting with a graphic nationwideadvertising campaign.
The billboards and print, radio and TV ads show people whose smoking resulted in heart surgery, a tracheotomy, lost limbs or paralysis. The $54 million campaign is the largest and starkest anti-smoking push by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its first national advertising effort.
The agency is hoping the spots, which begin Monday, will persuade as many as 50,000 Americans to stop smoking.
“This is incredibly important. It’s not every day we release something that will save thousands of lives,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a telephone interview.
That bold prediction is based on earlier research that found aggressive anti-smoking campaigns using hard-hitting images sometimes led to decreases in smoking. After decades of decline, the U.S. smoking rate has stalled at about 20 percent in recent years.
Advocates say it’s important to jolt a weary public that has been listening to government warnings about the dangers of smoking for nearly 50 years.
“There is an urgent need for this media campaign,” Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement.
The CDC was set to announce the three-month campaign on Thursday.
One of the print ads features Shawn Wright from Washington state who had a tracheotomy after being diagnosed with head and neck cancer four years ago. The ad shows the 50-year-old shaving, his razor moving down toward a red gaping hole at the base of his neck that he uses to speak and breathe.
An advertising firm, Arnold Worldwide, found Wright and about a dozen others who developed cancer or other health problems after smoking for the ads.
Federal health agencies have gradually embraced graphic anti-smoking imagery. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved nine images to be displayed on cigarette packages. Among them were a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, and a diseased mouth with what appear to be cancerous lesions.
Last month, a federal judge blocked the requirement that tobacco companies put the images on their packages, saying it was unconstitutional.
Graphic ads are meant to create an image so striking that smokers and would-be smokers will think of it whenever they have an urge to buy a pack of cigarettes, said Glenn Leshner, a University of Missouri researcher who has studied the effectiveness of anti-smoking ads.
Leshner and his colleagues found that some ads are so disturbing that people reacted by turning away from the message rather than listening. So while spots can shock viewers into paying attention, they also have to encourage people that quitting is possible, he said.
The CDC campaign includes information on a national quit line and offers advice on how to kick the habit, CDC officials said.
A northeastern Kansas woman whose 4-year-old son died when her unattended car rolled over him has been sentenced to one year in jail.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that 40-year-old Tammy Lynne Payne pleaded no contest in December to child endangerment and driving under the influence with a prior conviction.
She was charged after her son, Alex, died from injuries he suffered last March when the family car ran over him at their Ottawa home.
Franklin County prosecutors say Payne had been driving drunk with her children in the vehicle. When she got home, she got out of the vehicle and it rolled backward over Alex, who also had gotten out.
Payne was also fined $1,000 for the DUI conviction.
SURPRISE, Ariz.– The Royals’ optimistic outlook for 2012 took a serious hit on Wednesday, when it was announced that $7 million catcher Salvador Perez is to have surgery on his left knee.
The Royals had announced on Tuesday that Perez had a lateral meniscus tear; the surgery will take place in the next few days at a location to be determined.
Perez, 21, met with reporters on Wednesday afternoon in the clubhouse, leaning on crutches and answering questions with the catcher who’ll likely replace him, Brayan Pena, acting as translator.
“I’m very sad. It’s my first year, and I was very motivated, and it’s very painful. But hopefully I can bounce back and I’ll be fine,” said Perez, who was injured while warming up pitcher Jonathan Sanchez prior to Tuesday’s Cactus League game against the Reds.
“I was catching Sanchez in the bullpen, and I felt something funny in my knee, but I didn’t expect that it was something very dangerous,” he said. “But right now they told me that it was way more than I thought it was. It was a pitch inside, so I was trying to move in, and that’s when my knee tweaked. My spike got stuck, and … my knee moved out of place.”
The club said that no timetable will be set for Perez’s return until the medical team performing the surgery determines the severity of the injury. The meniscus cushions the knee between the femur and the tibia, and Perez’s tear is on the outside. That type of surgery typically requires several weeks’ recovery before a player is game-ready.
Although his knee was sore, Perez was able to get into his crouch, and he caught Sanchez in the first inning but then was taken out of the game. Head athletic trainer Nick Kenney sent Perez for an MRI, which revealed the injury.
Perez said he’d never had problems with the knee.
“Usually meniscus injuries are very fixable, and there’s really not any long-term ill-effects, assuming the surgery goes well and the rehab goes well,” general manager Dayton Moore said. “We know what a great worker Salvy is, and he’ll do everything in his power to get back and ready to go.”
The Royals have dodged the injury bullet with two of their other prize youngsters, first baseman Eric Hosmer and third baseman Mike Moustakas, both of whom hit the dirt in Monday’s game. Hosmer tweaked his right shoulder and Moustakas was drilled in the right knee by a pitch, but both were pronounced OK. Perez isn’t as fortunate.
“It’s really a freaky thing, but the important thing is [that] he’s going to get it fixed, and hopefully it’s not too severe when they get in there and we can get him back playing at some point in time this season,” Moore said.
The loss of Perez means that the Royals will rely on Pena as their starting catcher, at least early in the season, or try to make a deal for an experienced backstop. Pena is regarded as a good hitter, but he does not have the defensive or game-calling credentials of Perez.
Last season, Pena shared catching duties with Matt Treanor, who was obtained from the Rangers at the end of Spring Training when the Royals decided that Lucas May had shortcomings behind the plate. In addition, veteran Jason Kendall’s recovery from shoulder surgery was not coming along as fast as expected.
Pena, a switch-hitter, batted .248 in 72 games and was recognized as improving his defensive skills throughout the year. Treanor sustained a concussion in a home-plate collision on July 30 at Cleveland and never returned. Manny Pina came up briefly, but Perez was summoned on Aug. 10, and Treanor subsequently was sold back to the Rangers. Treanor signed this winter with the Dodgers.
Pina is the third catcher on the Royals’ 40-man roster, but he underwent surgery on his right knee on Feb. 27 in Kansas City after tearing the meniscus while catching in batting practice on Feb. 22. He is expected to be out for the rest of Spring Training and possibly beyond.
Moore said that the Royals are scanning the marketplace for more catching depth.
“With Manny Pina going down in almost the exact same situation, we were trying to find some depth already, so we’re going to have to continue to search for solutions and more depth there,” he said.
Manager Ned Yost noted that the injuries to Perez and Pina are strangely similar in how they happened. Both were reaching for pitches, and both caught their spikes in the dirt, twisting their knees.
“When it happened to Manny, he went down right away,” Yost said. “Sal didn’t even hardly flinch. He came in and said, ‘My knee’s a little sore.’ The trainer checked him, he was squatting fine, and Sal said, ‘I’m fine, time to go.’ When he came back in, he was having problems. … He could squat fine, but when he tried to straighten it out, he was having some pain.”
Among the other catchers in camp are Cody Clark and Max Ramirez, both of whom have considerable Triple-A experience.
Clark, 30, took Perez’s place in Tuesday’s game, and had two hits. Last season he played 51 games for Triple-A Omaha and batted .233 as he shared catching duties with Pina, May and, briefly, Perez. He’s been a solid backup catcher in the organization since 2007.
Ramirez, 27, has grabbed attention in Cactus League play by slamming three home runs, and he leads the team in RBIs, with seven. A right-handed hitter, he’s played 45 games in the Majors, with the Rangers, with a .217 average. He’s caught in Triple-A since 2008.
But aside from them, the catching cupboard in the organization is rather bare, experience-wise.
The Royals thought so much of Perez that, after just 39 games of big league time, they signed him to a five-year, $7 million guaranteed contract through 2016, with club options for the following three seasons. If all the options are exercised and all the performance bonuses are achieved, the deal could be worth $26.75 million.
During his seven-week stay in the Majors last year, Perez earned respect from the pitchers for his ability to analyze opposing hitters, manage a game, cover the position and throw. In addition, he hit much better than anticipated — .331 with 21 RBIs and 13 extra-base hits, including three home runs.
Today a low pressure trough will advance west to east across southwestern Kansas.
Warm, dry air will allow temperatures to climb into the 80’s in many locations. A large upper scale trough will advance into the plains by this weekend, bringing a good chance for rain to central Kansas Monday afternoon into Tuesday afternoon.
Today: Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 78. North northeast wind at 7 mph becoming southeast.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 50. South southeast wind between 3 and 6 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 82. Light wind becoming south between 12 and 15 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 56. South wind between 16 and 18 mph.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 82. Breezy, with a south wind between 14 and 20 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 59.
Sunday: Mostly sunny and breezy, with a high near 78.
Sunday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 58.
Monday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a high near 71.
Monday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy and breezy, with a low around 50.
Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 64.
Tobacco taxes and smoking bans haven’t budged the U.S. smoking rate in years. Now the government is trying to shock smokers into quitting with a graphic nationwideadvertising campaign.
