17 Chapter Health and Wellness ELIMINATING CIGARETTE AND TOBACCO USE

17 Chapter Health and Wellness INTRODUCTION U.S. Surgeons General’s Report on Nicotine Addiction concluded that –Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are addictive. –Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction.

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Each year, smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, automobile accidents, murder, suicides, and fires combined.

17 Chapter Health and Wellness TOBACCO USE About 430,000 Americans die each year due to smoking Cigarette smoking causes 30 percent of all cancers; including about 85 percent lung cancers

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Trends in tobacco use among youth Tobacco use among young people increased by nearly one- third in the ‘90s.

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Tobacco Characteristics 4,000 other chemical substances are released and carried in the smoke tar, a yellowish brown residue of smoke; tar is cause of lung cancer

17 Chapter Health and Wellness PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS due to nicotine -- Increased heart rate -- Increased release of adrenaline -- Direct stimulatory effect on the brain (smoker’s “rush”) -- Nausea and vomiting experienced by beginning smokers

17 Chapter Health and Wellness SMOKELESS TOBACCO: Prevalence of Smokeless Tobacco In 1986 Congress passed a law banning the advertising of smokeless tobacco (cigarettes had been banned since 1970)

17 Chapter Health and Wellness SMOKING & DISEASE Smoking decreases a person’s life expectancy by an average of 7 yrs.

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Short-term health effects of tobacco use A direct statistical relationship can be shown between smoking during pregnancy and –Spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, death among newborns, risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Health risks of smoking can be eliminated by quitting There is no such thing as a “safe” cigarette Î Low tar and nicotine reduces the risk of developing cancer, it does not decrease the risk for developing heart disease

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Bronchitis can be completely reversed by quitting smoking Emphysema results from destruction of the tiny air sacs deep in the lungs called alveoli -- It is a slow, irreversible process of alveoli destruction

17 Chapter Health and Wellness SMOKING & DISEASE: Tobacco Smoke’s Effects on Nonsmokers -- A nonsmoker in a smoke-filled room can inhale in one hour the equivalent of a cigarette’s worth of nicotine, carbon dioxide and carcinogenic substances

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Youth and Tobacco Advertising Cigarettes are one of the most heavily advertised products. Tobacco companies spend $6 billion a year on advertising. U.S. Tobacco companies target –Women –Teenagers –Non-Caucasian males

17 Chapter Health and Wellness Young people are a strategically important market for the tobacco industry because they constitute the chief source of new consumers.

17 Chapter Health and Wellness LEARNING TO QUIT SMOKING Permanently quitting smoking is difficult Each year, about 17 million people try to quit smoking for at least a day during the American Cancer Society;s Great American Smoke Out. Of these quitters, more than 4 million still are not smoking after 3 months.

17 Chapter Health and Wellness People stop smoking for a variety of reasons -- Risk of heart disease or lung disease -- Taste of food -- To please nonsmoking friends or loved ones -- Eliminate ever-present ashes and smell of cigarette smoke -- Fulfill a commitment to personal health To quit you must want to quit

17 Chapter Health and Wellness THE WAR OF WORDS There has been a war of words between antismoking groups (AHA and ACS) and the tobacco industry for many years Each year the tobacco industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars to promote tobacco products -- Smoking is portrayed as attractive, sexy, slim, high social status

17 Chapter Health and Wellness To combat the tobacco industries’ ads the antismoking groups advertised their message of the health consequences of smoking The U.S. plays an interesting role in the tobacco war -- Through the Department of Agriculture it provides price supports and other financial aids to tobacco growers and the tobacco industry -- Through the Public Health Service it promotes antismoking educational campaigns and finances research on the health effects of smoking