Chapter four
Empowerment
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Smoke Free Europe - A Forum for Networks
key issue of health promotion is to empower people to take care
of their health and the health of other people. Empowerment may
entail an improved capability for actual care, but it inevitably
involves people making the choices they feel right in everyday
life, and that means diminishing the vulnerability of sections
of the population to influences that endanger health. The choices
people make can in turn translate into action for rights to a
healthy environment in all contexts of life.
In the issue of smoking and health people are the driving force
for healthy public policy. People are empowered by legislation
which has to be widely accepted to be able to function in society.
This means that people can control their own health environment
to greater extents. This sort of cultural change is under way
in some countries. People have reached a consensus: they understand
smokers but take care of the health problems in their own environment.
Harri Vertio