Kick the Habit - A BBC radio series - Eurasia/Asia/Africa

Kick the Habit was a 12 part series of 15 minute programmes for World Service's Learning Zone strand broadcasting to Eurasia, Asia and Africa. The series was delivered in a "magazine programme format" encouraging interaction with its listeners by asking them to email the station with questions which were addressed on the air and also by taking part in a contest. Listeners were invited to view the Tobacco on Trial website. In addition, a specially designed website accompanied the radio series providing health information, background data, a People's Poll and an interactive debate on the pros and cons of smoking.

Tobacco, Health, Women

The 12 week series Kick the Habit was presented by Orin Gordon and aimed to supply information and answer questions such as "Why are cigarettes addictive?", "What do they do to the body?", "Is there a danger to you or your unborn baby if you smoke?", "Is passive smoking dangerous?", "How can we encourage children not to start?". The interactive nature of the programme gave the series a "live" feel as people would call in with questions which were answered by health experts such as counsellors from QUIT (a UK charity). These questions gave the programme direction on areas of interest such as "research showing more women in the UK were contracting lung cancer, the drug Zyban and a new campaign encouraging Muslims to quit for Ramadan". Kick the Habit also hosted a contest for their listening audience to email answers to questions on the smoking issue. The winner received a copy of a quit smoking self-help book. Listeners were kept current with the difficulties & triumphs of 3 volunteers who were trying to quit smoking, recruited by Kick the Habit and were directed to the Tobacco on Trial website for more information on quitting and tobacco in general. The series was also supplemented with material which was recorded on location for the 5 part BBC radio series Tobacco on Trial.