NYC's Reverse the Damage Antismoking Campaign

MYFOXNY.COM - Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who implemented the controversial smoking ban, is now promoting a new antismoking campaign featuring visceral imagery to encourage New Yorkers to stamp out the smokes.

The Reverse the Damage Campaign promotes what officials say are little-known facts about how quickly the body starts to heal itself when a person stops smoking.

"We have reduced the number of adult smokers by 350,000, prevented tens of thousands of premature deaths, and New York City’s smoking rate is now lower than at any time since we began keeping statistics on smoking more than 60 years ago," Mayor Bloomberg said. "It’s never too late to quit smoking, and we want to help smokers does just that.”

The campaign, in English and Spanish, will feature TV and radio ads, online banners, and posters on subways and bus shelters. The city is also offering free nicotine gum and patches to help New Yorkers quit.

Some of the stats the campaign will push include:

• 20 minutes after you quit smoking, your blood pressure decreases.
• 8 hours after you quit smoking, your blood oxygen level returns to normal.
• 3 months after you quit smoking, your lung function improves up to 30%.
• 1 year after you quit smoking, your risk of heart attack is cut in half.
• 10 years after you quit smoking, your risk of dying from lung cancer is about half that of a smoker.
• 10 years after you quit smoking, your risk of heart disease is that of a person who never smoked.

>NICOTINE PATCH AND GUM PROGRAM