[Social and personal obstacles in the fight against smoking at group and at individual level]

Is it fair to expect the individual to bear alone the responsibility of whether to smoke or not? What are the responsibilities of the community, the environment and of the groups like industry and political figures which influence him? That is the issue addressed by the author in describing (1) the factors determining an individual decision (health danger, personal threat, other disadvantages or advantages) and (2) those factors establishing within a community an environment favorable to smoking (tobacco cultivation and processing, legislation, publicity, media, etc.). In the planning of any educational programme against smoking this author stresses the need to consider above all the social factors which militate for or against smoking (family setting, friends as role models, self-image and the image of the smoker in publicity and the media) rather than the risk factors which often seem remote to the young who have more immediate concerns than imagining themselves ill from tobacco use by age forty. What instructional methods are recommended? Grade school education, which could contribute to instilling an early resistance to smoking, is far from the only or even the principal means of combatting tobacco use. Too much is made of what teachers can accomplish here. School curricula are overloaded and teachers must develop many different abilities among their students. They can still do a great deal to encourage a child to know and respect himself and to trust his instructor. Every academic programme must be incorporated within a wider community programme like those in Norway and Iceland which link legislation and education.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)