Analysis: Why Teens Shouldn T Smoke

Over the last few decades, tobacco and nicotine prevention efforts have risen to an all time high. Prevention efforts focus on education to the public of the negative effects on one’s health when using tobacco and nicotine products, as well as with pleas to healthcare policymakers to increase restrictions on product manufacturing and sales. One policy effort growing in popularity in the United States is called Tobacco 21, which proposes to raise the legal age of purchase for consumers of tobacco and nicotine products to 21 years of age (Farber, Pakhale, & Neptune, 2016). Farber, Pakhale, and Neptune (2016) state that 90% of tobacco and nicotine users begin smoking before the age of 18, with 99% of users starting before the age of 26. Lower smoking cessation rates are associated with earlier ages of initiation and the tobacco industry is known to target youth in advertisement of these products lending to the early age of initiation. The tobacco industry themselves admit that increasing the age allowed for purchase to exclude youth would substantially effect their sales. Tobacco 21 laws also deter adolescents from gaining tobacco or nicotine products from friends 18 to 21 years of age, which is the most likely age group to supply younger teens. With this knowledge, placing tighter restrictions on consumers younger than 21 years of age, using the Tobacco 21 policy, may deter tobacco and nicotine initiation in hopes to prevent individual use at all in the future (Farber

In a society where it is not unusual to see a ten year old child smoking a cigarette in public, where large tobacco companies sponsor all big sporting events and where smoking advertisements are everywhere you look, how can it be understood that what is going on is a form of suicide. Smoking is comparable to a serial killer; a cigarette acts as the weapon used by tobacco companies and its victims subjecting themselves by their own free will to participate in the crime.

Because the legal age is so young, it seems as though teenagers find it acceptable to start using when one is ‘close’ to being 18. Dr. Oz recently shared on a doctor blog that majority of people will have tried their first cigarette before they are even 18 (On Average). When starting use this early, an adolescent is becoming very unhealthy and even addicted before one is truly considered an adult. At 18 years old, the range of years to destroy one's body is much greater than if the legal age was moved ahead seven years to 25. A medical review explained, “Studies have found that nearly all first use of tobacco takes place before high school graduation. According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report, very few people start smoking after age 25: 98% of adult smokers first smoked by age 26. Nearly 9 of 10 adult smokers had their first smoke by age 18” (Child and Teen). Users clearly start at a younger age. By increasing the age to 25, the spectrum of users will be abated. 18 is simply too premature to allow tobacco use. The perception of cultural ‘norm’ use will be shifted. By making the legal age 25, the frame of users will be fluctuated and lessen the amount of tobacco

In 1979, the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth used the Peabody Individual Achievement Test to show that children born to smoking mother’s had an IQ that was on average, 2.87 points lower than other children. This study was not respected until the 1990’s when there were several efforts by both the United States Congress and the U.S Food and Drug Administration to protect youth from cigarettes. Prior to this, Americans tried to deny the fact that tobacco was harmful due to the glorification of the product as well as how frequently it was used in pop culture. However, in the last decade attention has shifted to secondhand smoke awareness. Although the ability to purchase the products has been revoked for children, it is still legal for their parents to do so. This secondhand smoke is extremely dangerous, especially for children. That being said, we should start to eradicate tobacco around them.

Imagine your life being slowly sucked away because of a cigarette that costed you money. This is the real truth of what a cigarette does to your life and more than enough reasons on why minors shouldn’t smoke. It has been studied that before smoking, minors would do exceptional on their tests that they took at school, but after they started their test scores started to lessen by about 0.08 percent each day from one cigarette. Many teen smokers say that smoking for their age is alright, as they get a “high” from it and they have a good time. Even though smoking for minors seems okay, it isn’t because it affects the genes inside their brains negatively, the U.S. has even seen the threat of it and banned it in most of it’s states, and when minors

At least 3,000 children smoke there first cigarette each day. From those 3,000 kids approximately 1,000 die. It affects them because they think it’s “cool” just because there friends do it. They may also think it’s okay to smoke because there family members smoke and they look up to them when there younger. The best way for teenagers and children to stay away is from there parents stopping so there not exposed once they get older.

On November 23, 1998 46 states including American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the US Virgin Island agreed to the largest manufacture of tobacco in US history (introduction). That was a horrible decision because in 2011 a study done in the United States estimated that 43.8 million adults are current cigarette smokers. 440,000 of those 43.8 million adults died of tobacco related causes (centers). Of those 43.8 million 34.1 million smoke at least once a day and the remaining 9.7 million of them smoke every once in a while. According to US law adults have the right to smoke freely even though they should make cigarettes illegal because of the many deaths and problems they cause.

Several themes have emerged through the analysis of the individual interviews. Adolescent tobacco use is greatly influenced by one’s social circle. Although, parental tobacco use may contribute somewhat to tobacco use in their children, peer pressure seems to take precedence in determining tobacco use in adolescents. Moreover, the ease in accessing cigarettes, when compared to drugs like marijuana or cocaine, seems to also influence tobacco use. Similarly, the interviewees reported that they ended up smoking tobacco more often because getting their hands on a pack of cigarettes was much easier than getting access to any other drugs. Furthermore, a lack in self-esteem, or a perceived lack in control over certain aspects of their life, such as,

Smoking among adolescents is a problem that affects countries all across the entire world. Yet, not every culture believes that teenage smoking is an issue of urgency. However, the United States has taken severe actions in attempting to decrease and eventually eliminate the use of tobacco products by teenagers. According to Te-Wei, Zihua, & Keeler (1998), ninety-percent of teenage smokers began before the age of sixteen years old. Looking into the future it is extremely important to reduce the number of youth who start smoking before this age. The issue of teenage smoking is important because it can affect the health of an entire society as those young smokers grow older and continue with a bad habit. For many adults, their first puff of a

Most smokers started their cigarette addictions when they were only minors. Tobacco companies are fully aware of this and rely on it for better sales. “To maintain sales, the tobacco industry must recruit more than 2 million people every year to replace those who die and those who quit smoking. Since 90% of beginning smokers are children or teenagers, this means that the industry must entice at least 5000 youngsters daily to take up smoking” (Andre and Velasquez 7). This means that advertising smoking towards minors is crucial to keeping these companies in business. They could not survive without underage smokers. Luring children to smoke is beyond unethical. No company should be allowed to entice kids into an addictive habit that kills every day.

In the United State more than 3,200 youth 18 years or younger smoke their first cigarette each day. Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease and death (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services [USDHHS], 2017). Tobacco is currently a legal addictive drug in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, tobacco use and addiction mostly begins and established primarily as an adolescent and in young adulthood. It is estimated that in 2015, 4.7 million students in middle and high school were current tobacco users. For every 10 youth, nine would have started smoking by the age of 18. Furthermore, if smoking continues at today’s current rate, it is projected that adolescents under the age of 18

The facts are right there on the box; “Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema and may complicate pregnancy.” Almost all teen smokers say they regret beginning to smoke. Most smokers attribute the habit of smoking to the glamorization of smoking in the media, peer pressure, self-image, and easy access to tobacco; from stealing cigarettes from parents or having someone who is 18 buy the cigarettes for them. Teen smoking is on the rise and it is a problem. Cigarette smoke is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It is projected that almost 500,000 deaths occur every year because of harmful effects caused by smoking cigarettes ; despite this fact, everyday almost 5,000 teens try cigarettes for the first time and about 2,000 of them continue to become regular smokers.

In the United States, you have to be 18 or 21, depending on your state, to purchase cigarettes. No one is born addicted to cigarettes you have to start one time or another and it is up to you to start and stick with it or not start at all. Adults and teens know the consequences that come with smoking. If they decide to start smoking they should be allowed to. Adults don’t need to be babysat, they can make their own decisions. Many other things in America are unhealthy and are allowed to all ages. For example, unhealthy fatty foods, but just like cigarettes that would be absurd to ban. Brady Cremeens makes a good point by stating “And why stop at smoking bans? Americans have many unhealthy habits. Obesity is an epidemic in our country, with one in five deaths being obesity-related each year.” After further research obesity can be considered more dangerous than cigarettes when looking at the death count in recent years. Another example that Cremeens uses is exercise. In Thank You For Not Banning Cigarettes Cremeens asks “Exercise is a great thing, but it’s laughable to suggest the government should legally require it. Why do we abandon that logic in the alternative?” To summarize, just because something is good doesn't mean it should be required and just because something is bad doesn't mean it should be banned. Adults should be treated as such and be able to make decisions by

As teenagers start to smoke on a regular basis, there is a progression of negative effects. Some effects such as an addiction, a disease, and possibly a result of death could do serious harm to the body according to the Washington Post (Brady A.3). Currently, there is an estimation of about 3,300 teenagers who try smoking and 700 to 800 of those teens become addicted each day (A.3). There are various amounts of tobacco products that teenagers are attracted by, such as electronic cigarettes and cigars, which are currently uprising in the youth population. Electronic cigarettes have had a large increase between the years 2011-2012 (“Emerging Tobacco Products” …NP). The number of middle school students have been able to use the electronic devices went from 0.6% to 1.1% between the years 2011-2012. The percentage of high school students who use

Over the last decade of two there has been a huge push to end the use of tobacco products such as cigarettes and chewing tobacco. These tobacco products have been proven time and time again to cause numerous serious health conditions and can be the direct cause of deadly conditions like lung cancer, mouth cancer and heart disease. Typically when one thinks of smoking and chewing, it’s an older generation that comes to mind. However, it’s been shown that tobacco use primarily starts in the early adolescent years. The CDC states that nearly 9 out of 10 cigarette smokers, smoked their first cigarette by age 18. The numbers of adolescent smokers grow almost daily. It’s estimated that more than 3800 youth aged 18 years or younger have smoked their first cigarette, and an additional 2,100 youth and young adults become daily smokers. (CDC, 2011)