Teen Smoking : Education And Prevention

middle (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) students, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analyzed data from the 2011-2014 National Youth Tobacco Surveys (NYTS). In 2014, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among middle (3.9%) and high (13.4%) school students. Between 2011 and 2014, statistically significant increases were observed among these students for current use of both e-cigarettes and hookahs (p<0.05), while decreases were observed for current use of more traditional products, such as cigarettes and cigars, resulting in no change in overall tobacco use. Consequently, 4.6 million middle and high school students continue to be exposed to harmful tobacco product constituents, including nicotine.” (Arrazola

In 2014, 24.6% of high school students reported that they used some type of tobacco product in the past 30 days (‘National Youth Tobacco Survey’). There are several factors that influence youth to begin using tobacco. Although it is clear that peer pressure can initiate smoking, multiple studies find that tobacco marketing causes an increase in youth tobacco use.

Smokers have almost twice the risk of having coronary heart disease as nonsmokers. Smokers' risk of getting lung cancer is approximately 14 times than that of nonsmokers. It has taken many years for tobacco products deadly effects to be scientifically documented. Tobacco companies spend approximately $14 million a day on advertising. Students who own cigarette promotional items are more than four times more likely to begin smoking, compared to those who do not own these items. Eighty-six percent of people between 12 and 17-years old who smoke prefer the three most heavily advertised brands. Only about one-third of adult smokers choose these brands. Almost ninety percent of adult smokers began at or before age 18. A recent study showed that thirty-four percent of teens began smoking as a result of the tobacco company's promotional activities. Tobacco companies loose 3,000-5,000 customers each day, more than 1,000 die from using tobacco as intended, the rest die of other causes. The tobacco industry targets 1.63 million new smokers a year to compensate for those that quit or die. The average age of new smokers in the United States right now is 12. Since the 1980s, big tobacco companies have supported a number of efforts to reduce youth access to cigarettes at retail. Thirty percent of teens that smoke say that they were able to obtain cigarettes from retail stores. Thirty-two percent of kids who smoke say they borrow

Young people may start to be curious about smoking at some point in time in their life. They might like the idea of doing something dangerous or something that makes them look like an adult. Young people do not know that smoking and tobacco use can cause cancer and heart disease. They do not look into the future to worry about the consequences. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States (Persoskie, Donaldson, & King, 2016). In this cohort study, there was a research if there was an interest about or ever-utilization of tobacco items among the US middle and high school students changed from 2012 to 2014. The research data came from the 2012 and 2014 National Youth Tobacco Surveys of US students in grades 6 through 12 (Persoskie, Donaldson, & King, 2016). 2014 data of students who used cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarettes were classified as ever-users or never-users of each product. The never-users were questioned about their curiosity about each product if they had been definitely, probably, probably not, or definitely not been curious about using the products.

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than forty million Americans smoke or use some type of tobacco product. Many adult tobacco user admit they starting using tobacco while in their teens. Many adolescents who are currently smoking will continue into adulthood if the appropriate interventions are not applied, i.e smoking cessation education, age appropriate programs along with smoking cessation products. Currently there are very few programs developed out there that specifically address this problem dispute the best efforts of the CDC ("CDC," 2015).

Consequently, according to the report by the Cancer Council (2009) the majority of adult smokers has smoked cigarettes in their early adolescence. In the year 1999 the rates for smokers within the ages of 10-15 were 20% and the ages of 16-17 were 40% (STS, 2009). However, the article by Woods (2009) stipulates that in the year 1995, a survey was conducted on Western Australians residing across the Perth metropolitan area. The results showed that the proportion of 14-year-old smoker males decreased from 28.6% to a 16.8% in 2005 (Woods, 2009). Additionally, the article further specifies that these numbers have decreased over time because of the “Smarter than Smoking” campaign that influenced a greater decrease in the numbers of smokers, which targeted the Western Australian adolescent population (Woods, 2009).

“Teen smoking is bad and it is leading to many different illnesses in america everyday” is what Center for Disease and Control has to say. Many People don’t see the long term effects of smoking. If teens saw what they would look like in 30 years after smoking over half of them wouldn’t smoke. Do to the things in Cigarettes your body can’t process what chemicals that are going into your body.

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

Smoking cigarettes leads to mental diseases and casualties in the United States with more than 480,000 individuals in the United States dying from cigarettes and about 41,000 deaths from second-hand smoking (CDC). After John Rolfe introduced the commercial crop in Virginia in the 1600’s, tobacco became the leading exported crop for the colony. Tobacco’s initial purpose was for “pipe-smoking, chewing, and snuff,” (CNN) and to cure individuals with health issues. With the abundant amount of tobacco, smoking became inexpensive and easy to access across the nation. Along with the accessibility and reasonable price, smoking became a huge issue for individuals ranging from teens to adults. An advertisement campaign, called TheTruth, created this visual advertisement of the teenager smoking a cigarette and the smoke of the cigarette illustrating a gun facing the teenagers head. From analyzing the advertisement, one can conclude about the high fatality rate of young teenagers smoking in the United States. The advertisement campaign focuses on the effects smoking has on teenagers in America. The creator of the visual uses a contrast between dark and light colors to portray negativity behind teen smoking, the use of symbolism to depict a gun from cigarette smoke conveys how each objects functions similarly, and the display of the text on the right hand side of the visual invokes fear to teen smokers.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Four of every five persons who use tobacco begin before they reach adulthood; more than 3,000 young persons begin smoking each day. In addition, smoking is addictive-three of four teenagers who smoke have made at least one serious, yet unsuccessful, effort to quit. The importance of tobacco use cessation programs for youth is addressed in Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives and in recently passed legislation related to the Goals 2000 National Education Goals. CDC's Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction states that tobacco cessation programs are needed to help young persons who already

Well I have three reasons why most of those people smoke at the age younger than 18. The first, people see others smoking so curiosity kicks in, and then they want to try too. The second, some people are already addicted to it due to smoking during pregnancy or second-hand smoking. My final reason, some people just hang out with the wrong people and they get pressured into smoking and as a result, they get addicted to it at a young age.

Teenage smoking can be a result of the influence of other teens, or maybe the amount of peer pressure. This can cause a teen to want to smoke or even think about smoking (Alcid, Arthur, page 1). Statistics show that 794 student and 22.4 percent of teens claimed to be tobacco users. (Alcid, Arthur, page 1). Teens tend to be more abrasive when smoking, and seem to act different while smoking and once they have gotten into the habit of smoking make it a constant thing. In 2003, 21.9 percent of high school students currently smoke cigarettes (Alcid, Arthur, page 1).

One of the largest issues today is adolescent smoking. According to a heath based website, nearly 90% of adult smokers start while they are still teens and they never intend to get hooked. They may start by bumming a cigarette or two from a friend at a party, and then go on to buying an occasional pack. Soon they realize that they can't go without that pack. They've gotten used to reaching for a cigarette first thing in the morning, after meals, or during any stressful time. They become addicted, both physically and psychologically. According to the American Lung Association, each day 6,000 children under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette. Almost 2,000 of them will become regular smokers – that’s 757, 000 new smokers annually!

It is known that cigarette smoking continues to be the prevalent cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. That said, according to surveys conducted by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking rates have declined in the U.S. by about 5% from 2005-2015. Further examination of these survey results illustrate that while rates are declining, the rate continues to be high in particular groups of the population. For example, young adults age 25-44 and middle age adults age 45-64 have higher smoking rates around 17% for each group, whereas those younger than 24 and older than 65 with significantly lower rates. Other population

The issues associated with smoking can be imperative to the growth and development of an adolescent. As a high school student many of these stressors affected my personal experience with substance use, as it is known that youth spend approximately one third of their time in school environments (Hofferth and Sandberg, 2001). Despite being aware of the harmful effects smoking has on one’s cognitive ability as well as the health risks associated with it, I was still presented with the ethical dilemma of whether or not to begin smoking as my friends had all taken it up. Social influences such as family and friends, have proven to increase the risk of adolescent participation. Also, perceptions of friends smoking predict developmental trajectories of smoking and according to both cross-sectional (Boyle, 1997) and longitudinal studies; youth who perceive that their peers smoke tobacco are at increased risk of using the product (Tomar and Giovino 1998). High school is one of the most major transitional periods in an adolescent’s life, therefore the stressors youth face surrounding them during this time period are tremendous. Social networks also known as social standings, indicate the youth’s popularity or centrality. Findings of sociometrical studies suggest that smoking is influenced by social marginalization and by social impact. Adolescents are concerned with social image and their social status amongst their peers. Looking back at my high school experience I personally felt