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Smoking concern.
Guess what is turning out to be a major head-ache for the US military chiefs. Terrrorism? "War" in Iraq? The situation in Pakistan? Nah.. It is "Tobacco Smoking"!! In the United States, smoking is twice as widespread among the military than the civilian population. For soldiers, apart from the normal health effects, smoking leads to a decrease in night vision, slower injury recovery time, and poorer endurance . The United States Department of Defence (DoD) already has a website dedicated to reducing the number of smokers in the military. Despite its best efforts to scare soldiers into quitting - with messages like "smoking makes you stink. You can't hide from enemy forces if they can smell you a block away!" - nothing seems to be working as the number of smokers in the U.S military has been steadily increasing since 2002.
So, in an effort to combat smoking among soldiers, the DoD is paying US$ 3.7 million to researchers in Houston, for cutting edge technology to help soldiers stop smoking - its a video game!!! For this game, the DoD has tied up with game publisher Radiant Creative Inc - which has already created an anti-smoking game for the youth customizable to age, gender, ethnic background and tobacco use called "Escape With Your Life". In that game, players create avatars and then they have to escape with their lives from inside a "scary" hospital. To escape and earn points, players must go through different rooms – from radiology to accounting – where they get tips and learn the physical, financial and environmental costs of smoking. In a study, interestingly, more than half of the 239 teenage smokers reported quitting after playing the game. How effective a modified version of this game will be in scaring battle-hardened soldiers away from smoking is still debatable. While video games do influence kids, can they actually affect the psyche of soldiers? The game creators however, are confident that soldiers will be hooked to the game and will kick smoking in droves. They are planning to have it ready for testing at Fort Hood in Texas by 2011, and mass produce it by 2013.
So, in an effort to combat smoking among soldiers, the DoD is paying US$ 3.7 million to researchers in Houston, for cutting edge technology to help soldiers stop smoking - its a video game!!! For this game, the DoD has tied up with game publisher Radiant Creative Inc - which has already created an anti-smoking game for the youth customizable to age, gender, ethnic background and tobacco use called "Escape With Your Life". In that game, players create avatars and then they have to escape with their lives from inside a "scary" hospital. To escape and earn points, players must go through different rooms – from radiology to accounting – where they get tips and learn the physical, financial and environmental costs of smoking. In a study, interestingly, more than half of the 239 teenage smokers reported quitting after playing the game. How effective a modified version of this game will be in scaring battle-hardened soldiers away from smoking is still debatable. While video games do influence kids, can they actually affect the psyche of soldiers? The game creators however, are confident that soldiers will be hooked to the game and will kick smoking in droves. They are planning to have it ready for testing at Fort Hood in Texas by 2011, and mass produce it by 2013.
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