Spring Break
You're still smoking?
How the government is taking a proactive stance against smoking
Amanda Kuzma
Issue date: 8/31/05 Section: News
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Even in light of all these new discoveries, this fact remains about lung cancer: 87% of all cases of lung cancer result directly from smoking. Even though this is very well publicized and it is common knowledge that smoking kills, 22.5% of American adults and 22.9% of American teenagers currently smoke at least once a week. While teenage cigarette use has declined over 10% in the past 5 years, the age group with the largest percentage of smokers is the 18-24 group (almost 30%). The threats are well publicized and well known; yet one in four Americans are still smoking. The questions remain: why are people still smoking, and what will it take to get them to stop?
Killing the body, one puff at a time
It is common knowledge that smoking wreaks havoc on the human body, and scientists and researchers are continually finding more ways in which tobacco negatively affects humans. A study done recently on the cadavers of smokers (both heavy and light) found traces of tobacco in every human organ, and even in the breast milk of women. This finding reaffirms past studies of the dangers of tobacco: it is the single most avoidable cause of death and disease. Researchers have even found that tobacco mutates DNA and accounts for one in five deaths in the US.
The most common result of smoking is cancer. While lung cancer is the most often diagnosed smoking induced cancer, the 2004 Surgeon General's report found that smoking causes many more types of cancers. Tobacco also causes oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, cervix, kidney and pancreas cancer, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. This is due to the fact that carcinogens in tobacco damage genes that control the growth of cells. This results in two things: abnormal cell growth and an unhealthy rate of cell reproduction, which not only increases one's chance of cancer, but also causes it to spread more quickly than in a nonsmoker.
While cancer is the most well-known result of smoking, there are actually more tobacco induced deaths due to cardiovascular disease per year (5.5 million) than cancer (4.1 million). Tobacco dramatically increases the risk of coronary heart disease and stroke, which are the first and third leading causes of death in the United States respectively. It kills one person every 33 seconds. Toxins in the blood from smoking cause atherosclerosis, a continual hardening of the arteries, which obstructs blood flow to the heart. This leads a smoker's resting heart rate to be two to three beats faster than a nonsmoker's.
Another obvious result of smoking on the human body is respiratory problems. Smoking dramatically increases the chances of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the fourth leading cause of death in the United States More than 90% of cases of COPD are due to smoking. This disease includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Smoking also reduces the rate of lung growth in adolescents who smoke and children who were exposed to tobacco while in the womb. Also, the carbon monoxide in cigarettes binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells, preventing cells from carrying a full load of oxygen, which leads to wheezing and trouble breathing.
An unlikely result of smoking is the effect on the immune system. Smokers suffer from a decreased functioning of the immune system. A smoker is not only more likely to get sick, but will have a virus longer. Tobacco also wreaks havoc on the mouth and teeth. Smoking leads to periodontitis, a serious gum disease that can result in loss of teeth. It also yellows the teeth and increases the chance of cold sores.
Smoking not only affects the health of the smoker, but also those around him while smoking. Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is defined as a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of tobacco-products (side stream smoke) and the smoke exhaled by smokers (mainstream smoke). While it may seem that secondhand smoke would not be as deadly as actually inhaling a cigarette, studies have found that secondhand smoke contains a mixture of over 4,000 chemicals, more than 50 of which are known carcinogens. It is classified as a Group A carcinogen, which puts it in the same group as asbestos and radon gas. Secondhand smoke particularly affects children, whose lungs have not fully developed. In the United States, 60% of nonsmokers have biological evidence of secondhand smoke. It is because of this fact that governmental and non-governmental agencies are attempting to make changes to policies about public smoking.
Forcing You to Quit
One way in which the government is attacking the smoking epidemic and trying to persuade smokers to quit is by passing stricter smoking laws as well as dramatically increasing cigarette taxes. As of today, there are 12 states with a 100% smoke free law in effect for at least one of the three following categories: workplaces, restaurants or bars. These states are: California, Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Connecticut, Florida, Rhode Island and Delaware. Four of these states are completely smoke free and Montana and Vermont have enacted smoke free laws that are not yet in effect. The only problem has been that very little legislation has made any headway in the states with the highest percentage of smokers, like Kentucky (32.6%) and Mississippi (33.2%). These laws were not only put into effect to protect non-smokers' health, but also in the hopes of convincing people to quit smoking all together. Results have been very positive. New York City passed a smoke free air law, as well as significantly raised its cigarette tax in 2002, and they found that close to 200,000 people had quit smoking in the two years after the law went into effect.
The passing of these laws was very controversial because many restaurants and bars worried about the economic effects that a smoking ban would have on their establishments. While results have been mixed, it seems that more states have seen positive economic changes rather than negative ones. Florida saw sales for restaurants up 7% and requests for restaurant licenses up 3% after the ban of smoking in restaurants was put into effect. The only studies that have found any negative economic effects have been those sponsored by the tobacco industry.
Currently, DC is close to making all workplaces 100% smoke free. Mayor Anthony Williams has recently voiced his support for the bill and is encouraging council members to pass it. Yet, the bill has hit a snag because Carol Schwartz, Chair of the Committee on Public Works and the Environment, has said she would not call a vote on the bill, but she would consider a compromise. Fellow council member David Catania is attempting to circumvent Schwartz by including smoke free laws in a bill he is proposing in the fall. Also, council member Kwame Brown has hinted that he would propose emergency legislation that would take the bill out of Schwartz's hand. Therefore, it seems inevitable that DC will be smoke free in the near future.
You're Still Smoking?
Even though everyone knows that smoking is bad for one's health, it continues to attract new users everyday. In order to combat the growing number of smokers, go\vernmental agencies, non-profit organizations and researchers are working together to convince people, with a particular focus on children and teenagers, not even to try smoking. The main governmental agency working against tobacco is the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC has created a website, Tobacco Information and Prevention Source (TIPS), with educational information of the dangers of smoking, as well as information to help those smokers who want to quit. The CDC works closely with the Surgeon General to research and publicize the effects of tobacco on the body.
One of the major differences between research about smoking now and research in the past is that the focus has greatly expanded. In the past, research focused squarely on the ill effects of smoking on the body. The tactic was to scare people into not smoking rather than educate them about the dangers of becoming addicted. Now instead of simply publishing reports about effects, publications are focusing on how to quit, the benefits of quitting and dispelling rumors about any kind of benefits of smoking.
In reality, many smokers want to quit. In a survey by the CDC, they found that 70% of smokers said they want to quit. Going "cold turkey" was always the way that people thought was the only way to quit smoking. In reality, only 5% of people who attempt to quit smoking by going cold turkey will actually not be smoking a year later. In the past ten years, quitting smoking has gotten easier with the invention of the nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges and nasal sprays. The patches and gum make quitting much easier on smoking because it slowly weans them off of nicotine instead of just completely eliminating it from their daily intake. By slowly decreasing the amount of nicotine the body is receiving, one is not as likely to go through as severe withdrawal symptoms as someone going cold turkey. While these aids have proven to be helpful, the chance of them working for someone who is a heavy smoker is still very slim. A smoker will overindulge by chewing too much gum or wearing too many patches, therefore getting them same fix they would if they actually smoked. Now, aids have become even more powerful with the creation of prescription drugs like Zyban and Wellbutrin. This pill is Bupropion SR, which reduces the urge to smoke by affecting the same chemical messengers in the brain that are affected by nicotine. These are thought to be an even healthier way to quit smoking since the body is no longer being fed nicotine. Yet, researchers now believe that one needs more than just replacements for the cigarettes to quit.
Groups now advocate a three-prong approach to quitting. In order to be successful, one should use some sort of aid to attempt to lessen withdrawal symptoms. The first few weeks are the most important to get through because that is when withdrawal symptoms will be the strongest. The second prong is counseling. This can be done in a variety of ways. One on one sessions with a counselor is the most helpful form of counseling for quitting. A more popular and cheaper way to get counseling is to attend a smoking cessation or nicotine addict group. This allows smokers to meet others who are going through the same struggles and possibly find strength in numbers. An increasingly popular form of counseling is telephone counseling in which a struggling smoker can call 24 hours a day to speak with someone who will be able to help him with his problem. What is most important is that those who want to quit continue to attend some form of counseling because the effectiveness of the counseling increases as the number and length of the sessions increase. The final part to successful quitting is social support. If a smoker has the support of friends and family, it makes their attempt 50% more likely to be successful. Sometimes this part can be the most difficult for smokers if their family and/or friends smoke, therefore increasing their chances of relapsing.
Another way in which advocacy groups are trying to discourage smoking is by dispelling rumors that made smoking popular. One reason many people, particularly women, smoke is because they feel it helps them lose or maintain their weight and many people do not quit because they think they will gain weight if they do quit. The fact is that smoking does burn calories, up to 200 a day for a heavy smoker. Smoking also increases one's metabolism, which leads to the burning of more calories. Yet, the impact of these two facts is usually minimal for most people. The real reason people will lose weight when they begin smoking is that smoking most often replaces food. Instead of eating a snack during a break, a smoker will have a smoke. This also contributes to the fact people gain weight when they quit. They often replace a cigarette with food or attempt to quell cravings by eating. Also, one will gain weight because the metabolism will slow, yet it will digest food more efficiently, meaning that the body will absorb more calories, but will also absorb more vitamins and nutrients.
Another myth about smoking is that it alleviates stress, yet a recent study by psychologist Andy Parrott, Ph.D, of the University of East London has found that smoking actually increases stress. Parrott found that people simply think they are relieving stress when they are simply fulfilling their desire for nicotine. "Regular smokers, therefore, experience periods of heightened stress between cigarettes and smoking briefly restores their stress levels to normal," observed Parrott. Therefore, one's addiction to nicotine is the reason that the smoker is feeling stressed and the only reason for their stress at that moment. Parrott was quoted as saying "this message needs to be far more widely known because it may help many adults to stop smoking."
While it is probably impossible to completely eliminate smoking from society, current trends are pointing in a positive direction for the health of Americans. With decreased numbers of smokers and more smoking obstacles, the future is getting clearer and clearer.
Kuzma is news editor and a government junior