Smoking Rates Among California Adults Essay

In the United States, smoking cigarettes is the number one preventable cause of morbidity and death (Bergen, 1999), and accounts for $300 Billion in health care costs and economic productivity loss (Jamal, 2015). While the national smoking rate is 16.8% (CDC, 2016), specific demographics are more susceptible to developing smoking habits: people who live below the poverty line (10.9% higher), disabled or with a limitation (6.2% higher), and males (4.7% higher) (Agaku, 2014).

In addition, Joey Connor not only analyzed the reasoning for the tax increase, but he also discussed how California will have a different position on tax rates compared to other states in April, when the changes become effective. The author also provided specific numbers to show the readers the significance of the tax rate increase; he analyzed the percentage increase per cigarette and per pack, which is a strength of the this article. Connor also explained the other aspects of prop. 64, so he did not limit himself to discussing only tobacco taxes issues. However, when he addresses the issue of the impact of the tax increase, he does not take into consideration that cigarettes might be a inelastic product , and consumer might not be responsive to price changes when they become effective. In conclusion, the author did an outstanding job at analyzing the important aspects of prop. 64 and explaining his readers the implications

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

I was required to identify one piece of health related legislation that is making its way through the state legislative process in California, but has not yet passed or been enacted. I selected SB 140: Electronic Cigarettes, where a growing health concern is brought up with the over use of electronic cigarettes (E-cigs). The following presentation will provide the reader an overiew of the health problem, severity of the health problem, overview of the bill and stakeholders, the promises/expected outcomes, problems of the bill, unintended consequences of the bill,and our recommendations.

Every time your loved one smoke a cigarettes, it takes away seven minutes of his or her life. By supporting proposition 56 we give them a second chance to live a longer live with you. Fathoming Prop 56 is key to decide the best decision that will benefit all californians. With that in mind, it is important to emphasize the fact that Proposition 56 would raise California’s tobacco tax, which is currently among the lowest in the country, to $2.87 per 2. pack. The money sale from tobacco will be used for improving health programs and research into cures for cancer and other illnesses caused by smoking and tobacco products. It is known that tobacco is responsible for killing 40,000 californians each year, which is more than the total people killed

It has been proven that smoking is the cause of 30% of general cancer deaths and 80% of lung cancer deaths in the U.S. Lung cancer has also been found to be the biggest cause of cancer deaths among breast cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer. This year alone, 190,500 of about 600,900 cancer deaths will be caused by smoking tobacco. This means that one in every three cancer patients will die due to tobacco products. In fact, smoking tobacco caused such high amounts of lung cancer that tobacco companies are legally required to include a surgeon general’s warning that outlines the potential of developing cancer on their packaging. The numbers and warnings of smoking-related lung cancer can be seen everywhere from statistics to the companies themselves being held liable for the illnesses their products

If 90% of United States smokers could have another chance to redo it, they reported that they would not even have their first puff that initiated their tobacco addiction (Winickoff, Gottlieb, and Mello 2014). The Tobacco 21 bill is a fairly new legislation and already it has shown a decline in underage smokers as a result of its implementation. The results of the survey presented that the public opinion was largely accepting and supportive of the bill. The main argument against the bill is the harm that will come to retailers of tobacco products. Correspondingly, the argument is proven inaccurate and in favor of the bill. The past has shown the improved outcome of the country from the raise in the minimum alcohol age, and researchers regard

In calculating the economic influence of smoke-free policies and laws, the Surgeon General considered their constructive effect in decreasing health care costs. Utilizing a simulation prototype, the Surgeon General concluded, if all U.S. workplaces implemented an all-inclusive smoke-free policy, it would result in 1.3 million smokers renouncing, 950 million less cigarette packs being smoked, 1,540 heart attacks and 360 strokes being prevented, and $49 million passive medical cost savings being attained within the first year.” The costs saved would increase over time. (American for nonsmoker’s rights,

According to the article of New York Times, the percentage of teenage smokers in California has been increased from 15% to 38% during February 2015 to February 2017. Because of this increase in teenage smoking, 18.1% increase in death rates were measured among teenagers because of circulatory diseases, cardio vascular diseases, lungs and throat cancer and mental disorders. Teenage smoking is the main root of all these diseases. Recent researches

Raising taxes on tobacco products and implementing smoking cessation legislations can minimize the prevalence of smoking up to 30 percent to 80 percent over a 50-year period (Ekpu & Brown 2015).In 2009, NBC news stated that Kansas, one of the states, considering banning smoking at enclosed areas showed that if they banned smoking in restaurants, the state was going to save 20 million dollars in healthcare costs (Associated Health, 2009). West Virginia state implemented smoke-free laws and had an increase of almost 1 percent in restaurant employment (“Smoke Free Laws do not Harm Business,” 2017). Restaurant workers were more comfortable coming in to work knowing they would be breathing in fresh air. Although in Tennessee, percentage of adults who smoked in 2011 increased from 23 percent to 24.3 percent in 2015 (Fletcher, 2016). This increment was not that significant considering the fact that it was over a period of just 4 years. The annual health care cost in Tennessee directly to smoking increased from $2.16 billion in 2004 to $2.67 billion in 2017(“The Toll of Tobacco in Tennessee”, n.d.).

It was in 1964 that the Surgeon General of the United States first published a report on the ill-effects of smoking cigarettes, and within a year the first law requiring health warnings on cigarette packages was in effect. From that point, the government has slowly, but continually, imposed more and more restrictions on the use of tobacco products. Throughout the 1960s, 70's, 80's, and 90's, the both individual jurisdictions within the State of California, as well as the entire state, continued to impose tougher and tougher restrictions on smoking cigarettes until 1994, when California became the first state in the union to pass a law which completely prohibited smoking in most enclosed workplaces. ("Secondhand Smoke Exposure") This law, which took effect in 1998, restricted smoking in all enclosed places of employment including offices, factories, bars and restaurants. But by the early 21st century, the current restrictions were not enough for California's lawmakers and a push was started to ban smoking in all public places. Since the passage of these restrictions in the 1990's, there has been a great deal of change in the state with advocates of the smoking ban pointing to the increased health benefits for the citizens of the state, while opponents focus on the economic damaged in the business community caused by the restrictions. It is therefore necessary to examine the State of California and its ban on smoking and how it has

The article gives information about the nationwide regulation restricting nicotine cigarettes in the U.S in terms of their promising outcomes such as reducing smoking among the youth and several trends of using tobacco-related products in a 10-year period. Furthermore, the authors also point put some possible challenges associated with cigarette withdrawal.

Since 2007, when the Tobacco Free Florida program first launched, there are about 70,000 fewer teen smokers and 272,000 fewer teens exposed to second-hand smoke, which contains hundreds of toxic chemicals, 70 known to cause cancer. The progress seen in Florida is consistent with a decreasing trend in cigarette use and an increasing trend in smoke-free policies in schools and universities around the state and country.

An estimated 36.5 million or 15.1 % of adults aged 18 years old and older currently smoke cigarettes and more than 16,000,000 have smoking or live with diseases that are related to smoking. According to US department of health and human services, over the past five decades, there is a significant decline in cigarette smoking in the U.S. The progress has slowed in recent years and the prevalence of use of other tobacco products such as vapes, e-cigars and smokeless tobacco

The tobacco industry is important to the economy. In 1991, worldwide tobacco sales exceeded $59.8 billion and in 1992 the industry was rated as one of the top one hundred advertisers (Pechmann and Ratneshwar, 1994). However, there are high prices to pay - socially, economically, and personally - as a result of this industry. Annual mortality figures indicate that cigarette smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States. An estimated 390,000 people die each year of smoke related illnesses, which is greater than the combined mortality for cocaine, crack, AIDS, homicide, suicide, and alcohol abuse (Botvin, G., Baker, Botvin, E., Dusenbury, Cardwell, and Diaz, 1993).