Review

For some, life is a drag

SMOKE RINGS
Video and booklet resource
Sheffield Health Promotion Unit, 1995

‘Smoke Rings’ is a well-produced resource which includes a 20 minute video and two concise explanatory booklets. It aims to help health and community workers develop a greater understanding of the problems many working class women face in trying to change their smoking habits. Through a series of face to face interviews, the video explores the women’s reasons for starting, continuing and, in some cases, finally stopping smoking.

The power of advertising and film imagery is all too apparent in the reasons women give for taking up smoking. Older women recall, in detail, films they saw 40-50 years ago which portrayed smoking as a glamorous and seductive pastime. Likewise, younger women describe the rebellious and ‘adult’ images that accompanied smoking advertisements during their teenage years.

What becomes clear early in the video is that by adulthood the glamour, seduction, rebellion and freedom that had been the reasons for starting smoking have given way to stress and the daily grind of trying to make ends meet. Smoking changes from being a fashion accessory to an important means of coping with adult life.

The value of this video lies in the frank and insightful way in which the women speak about their tobacco use. The women interviewed are aware of the financial and health costs associated with smoking, yet constant authoritarian reminders of these does little to encourage them to stop. What is needed is a better understanding of why these women use cigarettes and how, given the real constraints and demands of their lives, healthier alternatives can be found. Encouragement, support and sympathetic understanding are needed to tackle this complex but important issue.