Threats About Smoking In The UK

This essay aims to address the issues associated with smoking, its impact on the public health and how this can be tackled through health promotion, therefore the role of the nurse will be explored in respect of the nursing contribution, especially primary care in community settings. The current national and international policies will be considered as a recognition of its impact to the public health, conjointly how these can support the nurse in delivering the health promotion. Finally, the implications for future for Public Health will be considered.

The smoking habit is the principal cause of illness, disability and death around the world. More than five million of people in the world die due to smoking habit every year. If we don’t take care of this in 2030 the amount will be ten million. Seven million of these deaths would be in poor countries.

This essay is aimed to explore, analyse and discuss smoking in adults. Smoking is a public health issue as such is one of the major contributors to high mortality and ill-health in the adults which is preventable (Health and Excellence Care (NICE) (2012). The United Kingdom (UK) is known to have the highest number of people with a history of smoking among people with low socio-economic status (Scriven and Garman, 2006; Goddard and Green, 2005). Smoking is considered a serious epidemic in the UK and the National institute for Health and Excellence Care (NICE, 2012) stated that 28% of adults with low economic status are tobacco smokers compared with 13% of those with economic status or having professional

Smoking is recognised as the largest single preventable cause of death and disease in Australia. It is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, renal disease and eye disease. Tobacco contains the powerfully addictive stimulant nicotine, which can make smoking a regular and long-term habit that is not easy to quit (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). Statistics show

Tobacco use and the effects of second hand smoke have been an ongoing issue for many years. Looking at the attitude of the 1950’s and 1960’s when smoking was thought of as cool, suave, mature, etc., there has been a major turnaround in the way society looks at the use of tobacco. Now the issue is not just smoking and the damage to health that it causes, but now there is the additional awareness of what second hand smoke can do to individuals.

With many decades worth of health data now available, it has never been clearer that smoking is one of the most dangerous habits a person can engage in. It is no wonder, then, that so many smokers are committed to quitting and improving their health.

Smoking has greatly changed through the years. However, if one thinks about it does smoking control society in a particular way, or does society control the view on smoking. Through time, one can discover that there are many examples that may explain this question.

According to statistics in the 20th century the world over 100 million people died of tobacco-related diseases. However, the proportion of smokers has not decreased, or even increased due to the limited understanding of the harmful effects of tobacco smoke, knowledge is limited.

Smoking is injurious to health and a preventable cause of premature death. In the U.S.; it is estimated that one in each five adults smoke currently and about 480,000 people die prematurely from diseases caused by smoking or secondhand smoke exposure. (CDC tobacco use). The economic burden of tobacco use is also significant. About $100 billion per year is spent in medical expenses and another $100 billion per year in lost productivity. There is no safe level of smoking

Smoking is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. The exposure to tobacco smoking negatively impacts the health of an individual over time by increasing the risks of developing diseases of the respiratory and circulatory systems (Ministry of Health, 2005). In particular, smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. With repeated exposure, inhalation of tobacco into the lungs causes a build up of tar, altering lung tissue (Cockerham, 2007; Marmot and Wilkinson, 2006). This direct use of tobacco accounts for the death of 5 million people around the world. In the United States, 444,000 deaths per year are attributed to smoking, were 13 years of life lost for a male smoker and 14.5 years lost for a female (Cockerham, 2007; WHO, 2012). In New Zealand, tobacco use is the main cause of preventable death, contributing to around 4600 deaths

Cigarettes are the most important substance to address in the United States because they are not only extremely addictive, but they have the potential to cause a variety of serious health conditions and affect individuals who are close to and care for the user. Tobacco use poses a serious health threat especially among the young population of America and has significant implications for the nation’s public and economic health in the future. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the impact of cigarette smoking on the economy is huge. Seventy-five percent of American health care money spent is due to the effects of tobacco causing various chronic diseases. Such diseases include, diabetes, heart disease, cancers, congenital defects, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), stroke, birth defects, etc. “Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduced the health of smokers in general” (CDC, 2015).

In each year between 1998 and 2002, over 106,000 deaths in the UK, around a sixth of the total, were from smoking-related causes and smoking was the direct cause of about three in five of all cancers (Westlake, Yar, 2006:

Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable death worldwide. It kills an estimated 5000 people in New Zealand every year and affects the quality of life for thousands more. The cost to the health system that can be directly attributed to smoking has been estimated to be at least $1.9 billion a year. There are about 650,000 smokers in New Zealand – and of those, 80 percent wish they had never started and about 65 percent have tried to quit in the past five years. (Ministry of Health, 2005). Smoking increases the risk of

Cohen, E. L., Shumate, M. D., & Gold, A. (2007). Original: anti-smoking media campaign messages: theory and practice. Health Communication, 22(2), 91-102.

The tobacco industry kills more people in North America from Monday to Thursday of each week than the terrorists murdered in total on September 11, 2001. That sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Well, smoking is an epidemic that affects us all, whether you are a smoker or you aren’t. In order to stop this epidemic, we need to