Press release 24 June 2004

THE INTERNATIONAL QUIT&WIN 2004 SUPER PRIZE WENT TO GERMANY

The international super prize (USD 10.000) winner is the national winner of Germany. Mr Karl-Heinz Evers from Lübeck is 53 years old and he used to smoke more than 2 packs cigarettes a day for 32 years. Congratulations to the lucky winner!

The regional prizes of USD 2.500 went to Togo, Sudan, Greece, Canada, India and China. Details have been communicated to the organizers in question. Congratulations to all the winners!

International Quit&Win 2004 has set a new world record with the most people giving up smoking at any one time. 700.000 smokers world-wide were joined across 73 countries in the pursuit of a common goal – to give up smoking and be in with a chance to win a prize as part of International Quit&Win 2004.

The prizes were drawn in 23 June 2004, by Professor V. Starodubov, Vice Health Minister of Russia, in Moscow in the opening ceremony of the 3rd International Congress of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD).

EVERY QUITTER WINS

All those who entered and successfully quit have won the most precious prize of all – their health.

Participating countries in the Quit&Win follow jointly agreed rules. All contestants had smoked daily for at least one year and are 18 years of age or older. The contestants are required to abstain from smoking for at least four weeks, which is verified with a urine test among the winners. Based on earlier experience, an estimated 20 % of the participants are still smoke-free at the one-year follow-up. If this success rate holds with Quit&Win 2004, there are 140.000 new ex-smokers in the world!

Quit&Win has rapidly grown in popularity as a practical international smoking cessation activity. Quit&Win began in 1994 with just 13 countries participating. Since then, the competition has taken place internationally every second year.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Marjo Pyykönen
Project Coordinator, International Quit&Win
National Public Health Institute (KTL), Finland
Mannerheimintie 166
FIN-00300 Helsinki, FINLAND
Tel. +358-9-4744 8907
Fax. -358-9-4744 8980
E-mail: [email protected]
www.quitandwin.org