The Health Behavior Of Tobacco Use Among Adolescents

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).

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

Smoking is one the top leading preventable causes of death in the world today.5 Among all the states in the United States, West Virginia is ranked the highest in regards to smoking among the adolescents.15 Smoking cigarettes is seen everywhere among adolescents and the adults, focusing on the current static readings of how severe it is common among the West Virginia adolescent age group. By developing and implementing tobacco-control programs it has been proven to reduce the rate of smoking cigarettes among adolescents in West Virginia.

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

Addiction and substance abuse is a personal fear in most people worldwide. Young people are more susceptible to experimenting with tobacco and alcohol, than middle aged or older people are. Most people reported smoking at the age or eighteen, when they could legally purchase

In fact, the tobacco industry has suffered ever since antismoking advertising has begun (Johnston, p. 107). According to statistics, 4 in every 10 Americans who are in 12th grade have tried cigarettes, and 1 in 10 consider themselves current smokers. As well as, 1 in 5, 8th graders have tried cigarettes, and 1 in 16 consider themselves current smokers (Johnston, p. 107). Now that society is aware of the harms of tobacco, it is important to decrease such rates of smoking amongst youth. Not only are there commercials about the risks of cigarette smoking, but also there are commercials that promote living above the influence of all drugs, including alcohol and marijuana. Lastly, as research continues to improve, and new drugs arise it is important to keep youth educated on the risks of using such drugs. It is important to keep our youth safe from the dangers of

The study written about in this article was from the University of Waterloo and Wake Forest School of Medicine in Canada. The data was collected from the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drugs Survey. The students that took the survey were all from the 7th-12th grade. Almost 10 percent of those students admitted to using e-cigarettes at least once. It was found that the students that have tried an e-cigarette are 2.16 times more likely to start smoking tobacco.

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.

Nicotine addiction is a most common addiction faced by adults and teens in today’s society, which could gradually lead to death eventually. A tobacco product such as a cigarettes, cigars, and pipes contains nicotine and 4,000 more different chemicals that are toxic to the body and brain physically and psychologically (CDC). Teen are pressured by their peers into start using nicotine products at early age in order to fit into a society or a group where it is symbolized as “Cool kids actions” to use this product, while adult use tobacco products because they are addicted. According to CDC more than 480,000 deaths annually are tobacco related death in which person was addicted to tobacco or victim of second hand smoke.

Teens smoking has been a public concern for centuries. In a recent article published earlier this year by Fox News, highlighted the rate and risk of teens smoking and the rise of e-cigarettes. One of the main question posed was, why do teens smoke? There is no definite answer,however; a few intelligible explanation has been given. Biology and developmental vulnerability are the few partially reason given. Biology studies shows that, until in their 20s and adolescents Brain is not equate enough to measure and assess assess race and long-term consequences.one reason is that teen are very vulnerable,which makes them an ideal target for cigarrette companies. luckly the federal government has set strict rules that limit tobacco companies who sets

Tobacco use is abused in today’s world. Each day there are more than 32,000 people under the age 18 will smoke their first cigarette. Appoximatley 2,100 youth and young adults will become every day smokers. There is an estimate of 42.1 million smokers is the united States. Smoking is a very dangerous habit. It is in the top ten causes of death in America. More than 16 million Americans already have a disease from smoking. More than 20 million Americans have died from smoking related deaths since 1964. 8.6 million people are living with a serious disease caused by smoking. On average smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non smokers. These are some very simple facts about the general health of smoking. Respiatory disese is bound to

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

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!

Tobacco; one of the most profitable products in history, an addictive substance, and a deadly killer. Smoking tobacco used to be a thing that was endorsed in American society. Now, with the new medical advances and knowledge, society has seen the side effects of smoking and how fatal it actually is. Teenagers have been one of the largest age groups that have been affected by smoking. After analyzing all possible reasons as to why teenagers would smoke while knowing it can affect their health, three possible reasons stuck out the most. Teenagers smoke despite knowing the health problems that originate from smoking because of peer pressure, an “invincibility” mentality, and seeing a role model or family member smoke.