Causes and Effects of Smoking - Essay Example

Smoking Smoking Despite of the massive campaigns and awareness programs against smoking, smoking habits among people increase in many countries. “According to the American Heart Association, an estimated 24.8 million men and 21.1 million women, 23.1 percent and 18.3 percent of the total population, respectively, were smokers in 2008” (Cunningham, 2014). The health problems associated with smoking habits are well known to all at present. Many formal and informal studies have proven the health problems that can be caused by first hand smoke as well as second hand smoke. In other words, smoking causes problems not only to the smoker but also to the innocent people around him. According to Reynolds (2012) “there is no safe level of second hand smoke. An overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence has proven that it causes lung cancer and heart disease among non-smokers who are exposed to it” (Reynolds, 2012). Thus smoking is a behavioral and psychological problem as well as a social problem. This paper analyses the causes and effects of smoking. Moreover, this paper attempts to answer the question why attempts to give up smoking are often unsuccessful Causes and effects of smoking The major reason behind smoking is the stress factor. Current generation has many personal, professional and social commitments. When they fail to fulfil their commitments, various types of stress will come into play in their minds. Smoking helps such people to escape from such stresses at least for a temporary period. The ingredients of the tobacco smoke have the ability to help people to develop a relaxing mood. Cunningham (2014) has cited many examples to substantiate the argument that smoking has the ability to relieve stress. For example, he has pointed out that “for decades, soldiers have taken up smoking on the battlefield to deal with wartime stress. Many people experiencing much lower levels of stress in a high-pressure job, may start to smoke as a way to manage the tension and nerves associated with the situation”. In short, there is a belief or superstition among the people that smoking has the potential to assist the people in relieving their mental problems and stresses of various types. Celebrity culture is another major reason for smoking. The upcoming generation has the tendency to imitate their heroes in their walk, look, appearance and behaviors. For example, smoking is a major activity in many of the modern films. When upcoming generation sees their heroes smoke in a particular manner, they will also develop a tendency to imitate the movie stars. Adolescents who choose movie stars who use tobacco on-screen are significantly more likely to have an advanced smoking status and more favourable attitudes toward smoking than adolescents who choose non-smoking stars. For adolescents whose favourite stars smoked in only one film, the odds of being higher on the smoking index was 0.78 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.53 to 1.15). For adolescents whose favourite stars smoked in two films, the odds of being higher on the smoking index was 1.5 (95% CI 1.01 to 2.32) (Tickle et al, 2001, p.16). From the above statistics, it is evident that celebrities play a vital role in causing smoking habits among upcoming generation. Peer pressure is another important factor in motivating the teenagers towards smoking habits. It would be difficult for a teenager to stay away from smoking when all his friends engaged in smoking activities. His friends may ridicule him, harass him or isolate him from their group, if he resists the temptation from them for smoking. It should be noted that group formation among the teenagers are usually taking place based on some common themes. No smoker would like to see a nonsmoker in their company. Therefore, it would be difficult for a nonsmoker to avoid the temptation for smoking and still able to join the group of smokers. “Although many adults mature beyond the need to constantly please their peers, we carry into adulthood the teens desire to be part of a group” (Cunningham, 2014). Smoking is considered as an unavoidable activity by many youths and adults when they engaged in a socializing activity. In other words, smoking act as a catalyst in the socializing activity. The influence of advertising on smoking habits cannot be taken lightly. Even though statutory warnings such as “smoking is injurious to health” are usually displayed in smoking ads and printed on the cigarette packets, such ads will not catch the attention of the viewers. The advertisers will take immense care to display or print such warning signs in the smallest possible size so that the attention of the viewers may not go towards it. At the same time, the advertisers of tobacco companies usually mislead the public with the help of fabricated claims or misdirected ads. All these activities have the potential to encourage smoking habits among the people. Since the ability to make sound decisions is lacking among teenagers, misdirected ads have the ability to cultivate smoking habits among teenagers. Parental influence is another contributing factor towards the development of smoking habits among teenagers. Many of the children start smoking from their home itself. It should be noted that many parents have the habit of smoking in front of their children. After watching their parents smoke, children develops a feeling that there is nothing wrong in smoking. Children usually get access to cigarettes from their home itself since many parents have the habit of keeping cigarette packets in their home. In short, the role of smoking parents in cultivating smoking habits among their children cannot be taken lightly. The major health problem generated by smoking is lung cancer. Mong et al. (2011, p.1) conducted a study among lung cancer patients to know more about the potentials of smoking in causing lung cancer. His findings are given below; 77% had a smoking history. 11.3% were current smokers. The length of smoking cessation to cancer diagnosis was Read More