Teenage Smoking Essay

According to “The Action of Smoking and Health,” every six seconds someone loses their life as a result of a tobacco related disease. It’s hard to realize how damaging cigarette smoking’s effect can be until you experience it first hand. It is almost certain that every one knows someone who is currently a smoker or was a smoker at some point in their life. For years smoking was the seen as the “cool” thing to do, it was how to “fit in.” There was no real emphasis placed on the dangers of this particular habit, and as a result, it became a world wide trend. In the past, technology and medicine were not nearly advanced enough to be able to determine just how harmful tobacco usage is. However, as we have made medical and

Cigarette companies use trends, age, culture, and other things to hook a person to their product. The companies mainly target teens because of their ignorance and teens who get addicted that young will likely be customers for life. Tobacco is promoted on almost every television network and 1/3 of adolescent experimentation with smoking results from the advertising. (Tobacco Free Broome and Tioga) Not only are cigarettes promoted on TV, but their promoted throughout everyone’s lifestyle. Maybe a role model you have, maybe one of your parents, or maybe a celebrity you enjoy following... any one of these people could smoke and the mindset of many is, “if they’re doing it, so can I”. Mike Magee smoked his first L&M cigarette when he nine years old, his parents smoked and kept cigarettes in the house and therefore they were accessible. He and his siblings said that learning how to smoke was

In our communities, the youth can easily identified any of tobacco’s product. The author, Steven Reinberg, published , Tobacco Companies Targeting Teens, Study Says, states that the tobacco product, Marlboro, is highly purchased by high school students according to usnews.com. Mr. McGoldrick states that the three brands, 90 percent is being marketed. Most companies hold their ground saying that their tobacco products are not meant to bought by youth, but somehow still managed to in our children’s hands, in his article, Tobacco Companies Targeting Teens, Study Says (steven Reinberg). According to Erin Brodwin, author of “Tobacco Companies Still Target Youth despite A Globally Treaty”, states that children all over the world can identify the tobacco brands. Not only are children picking up their ideas from television, but also from public. Children knowing which brands shows how serious the addiction can be. Seeing how easily the product being shown to the youth is another way of starting. If less smokers are seen in public, the lower the numbers will

     During the 1040's and 50's smoking was popular and socially acceptable. Movie stars, sports heroes, and celebrities appeared in cigarette advertisements that promoted and heavily influenced teens. Influence also came from Television and other media sources. The desires to be accepted and to feel grown up are among the most common reasons to start smoking. Yet, even though teenagers sometimes smoke to gain independence, and to be part of the crowd parental influence plays the strongest role as to whether or their children will smoke, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), 1991. Children are exposed to and influenced by the parents, siblings, and the media long before peer pressure will become a factor. Mothers should not smoke during pregnancy, nicotine, which crosses the placental barrier, may affect the female fetus during an important period of development so as to predispose the brain to the addictive influence of

Several changes occurring during this stage and the growing needs alter. It is common during this time for boys to feel masculine and for girls to be concerned about their appearance. Some teenagers become rebellious and may want to defy the mainstream (Eccles, Jacquelynne). Disclosed documents from the tobacco industry’s advertising agencies reveal discussions about how psychosocial drivers are the best way to reach underage youth. Young people’s lifestyles, motivations, and aspirations are the subject of detailed and continuous market research. Everything possible is done to attract and retain their interest. Specifically, the conclusion is drawn repeatedly in these documents that young people smoke for emotional reasons and cigarettes can meet these needs by being aspirational and acting as “a badge” and a “sign of maturity, discernment and independence.” (Teague, Claude). The job of advertising, therefore, is to help build and reinforce these qualities in the

The European Respiratory Journal stated that most teenagers who light up their first cigarettes are not fully aware of the health risks they are exposing themselves too. Some of the short term risks are mild to moderate respiratory issues and eventually tobacco dependence. The long term problem the teen face is the will continue to smoke throughout their adult life. Then they face long term chronic lung issues and many will die of a smoking related illness. This study also pointed out that teenagers who do not smoke are enrolled in sports and other activities, also the following reason contribute,

Studies have identified a greater contingency of persistent smokers in those who currently reside with a smoker or have a relative who smokes (Moyse, 2009). Moyse (2009) states peer pressure is particularly influential for young people who may hold the opinions of others in high esteem. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] (2015) states that tobacco companies in the United States spend more than $9.6 billion in tobacco advertisements. More than 50% of their advertising is spent on targeting youth, such as through the development of candy and fruit-flavored nicotine vapors for e-cigarettes (CDC, 2015). According to the Hawaii Department of Health [DOH] (n.d.) the number of U.S. youth who had never smoked a cigarette but used electronic cigarettes tripled between 2011 and

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. A numerous number teen smokers say that smoking for their age is alright, as they obtain a “high” from it and they have a good time. Even though smoking for minors seems well enough, it isn’t since it affects the genes in their brains negatively, the U.S. has even seen the threat of it and banned

To this day several people continue to smoke even after they are shown the effects and harm that they are doing to their own body and the risks that come from it. After several years of smoking their lives away people become diagnosed with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, this is a disease that makes it harder for people to breathe. The disease only progresses if you continue to smoke and remains untreated and can lead to heart failure and even death. More than 16 million people in the United States of America have been diagnosed with a smoking-related disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “nearly 17 out of every 100 U.S. American adults at the age of 18 or older currently smoke cigarettes.” Smoking doesn’t

The effects of cigarette smoking can be horrifying. Smoking is dangerous not only to those who smoke, but to non-smokers and unborn children as well. Cigarette smoking is also physically and socially harming.

Nowadays students are not only being pressured to smoke by their peers and by their surrounding, but they are also watching their parents smoke. Many teens have been influenced by

To make matters worse, the tobacco companies are making millions from teen smokers. Tobacco companies use advertising to manipulate both teens and adults. They present images that are hard to shake, even when you know the truth. Have you ever seen a cigarette ad where people are wrinkled, middle-aged or coughing and in the hospital dying of lung cancer? Of course not! In most ads, smokers are shown the way that teens would like to be: attractive and hip, sophisticated and elegant, or rebellious.

Deaths caused by smoking have reached epidemic proportions. In the United States alone, 430,000 people die annually from smoking-related illnesses such as cancers and lung disease. Stephen Jay, chair of the Department of Public Health at Indiana University School of Medicine, states that tobacco’s “human toll far exceeds the Black Death of the 14th century, the global influenza pandemic of 1918–19, and the modern tragedy of HIV-AIDS.”

Adolescent smoking behavior in the Highlands Ranch area varies by ethnicity of students, gender, socioeconomic status, as well as the neighborhood quadrant they reside—typical of student populations in other communities. While these attributes are drivers behind peer pressure to begin using e-cigarettes at younger ages, today’s middle- and high school students are perceivably plagued by anxiety and depression. Teenage smoking, a coping mechanism for these unfortunate health issues, is in turn creating another community health problem for which this project is based. For those with symptoms of despair, low mood levels, or simply being stressed out, the recognized benefits of social smoking outweigh the health problems that will arise mid-life. Similar to tobacco products, many adult e-cigarette smokers became addicted during teenage years where poor choices have led to negatively affected lives. Our youth are not equipped to make conscious decisions, nor see the consequences of socially, and physically suffering through this activity. Therefore it is not surprising that school-aged teens are targeted for increased marketing of tobacco products. By way of empirical data research among community peers, it makes sense that depression and anxiety of being brought up in a community with a majority of Caucasian residents, white collar careers, and generally a higher status—does not follow the trend of younger individuals simply becoming active smokers due to a lower socioeconomic

The author Rachel Kranz in “Straight Talk About Smoking,’ states, “Smoking more means that Lynette has less to spend on pizza and after-school snacks, because she’s got to make sure she can afford three or four packs of cigarettes each week.” (Kranz). Peer pressure to smoke can also be a way of teenagers proving that they are mature. Maturity is something that all teenagers have been told to obtain; especially by adults. The legal smoking age in most states is twenty-one, and most adults do smoke. Teenagers think that they can feel more grown up when they smoke and fit in society. Kaz Vorpal in the book of “Teen Smoking,’” states, “Adults do certain things, and therefore children who do those things feel they are more like grownups.” (Vorpal 66). Movies also contributes to teen smoking by portraying smoking as a cool, pleasurable, and harmless thing. All these factors give the teen a pressure to start smoking and never realize that the Nicotine that is found in the cigarette is addictive and causes major health problems like cancer.