People living in California are far more probable to be able to quit smoking

Ukmedix News has learned that where you live in the world can play a big part in whether you smoke or not. In some parts of the globe smoking is so commonplace that by being a non smoker you are the odd person out in the crowd and the pressure on you to light up is much greater. In other parts of the world it is becoming socially unacceptable to light up and smokers often find themselves standing outside buildings or alone in the freezing cold to feed their nicotine habit.

Research done at the San Diego School of Medicine which is linked to the University of California shows that smokers are much more probable to attempt to quit smoking when they live in areas where smoking is deemed to be socially unacceptable.  They also noted that the chances of them succeeding in their smoking cessation attempt was higher in these areas too.

The researchers looked at the smoking patterns of immigrants from Asia who had arrived from countries where smoking was deemed to be socially acceptable and they saw that those immigrants who went to live in places where it was not acceptable to smoke were more likely to end up being smoke free. The lead researcher Shu-Hong Zhu said that while people say they like to be individuals the reality is there is a strong urge for people to conform to social norms. By using immigrants who had come from places where smoking was an acceptable and social normality and then putting them in places where the opposite applied was very effective in evaluating the effect of social pressures in quitting smoking.

In California which initiated the first smoking ban in public places worldwide smoking is seen by most people who live in the state as being socially unacceptable and thus people living in California are far more probable to be able to quit smoking than people who live in other states where smoking is still allowed in public places and the habit is socially acceptable.

Smoking bans in public places have been extremely helpful for making smoking socially unacceptable as well as from protecting non smokers from the effects of passive smoking and helping people who are attempting to quit to forget about their nicotine addiction.