Smoking and its Increasing Prevalence - Research Paper Example

? Smoking and Its Increasing Prevalence AFFILIATION: Smoking is an addictive habit and it is observed to be running rampant for a long time. There have been countless research studies in order to find out the effects of smoking and every single one of them have shown adverse effects on the human health. In spite of this fact being publicly known, still people are observed to continue smoking. This article focuses of one of the possible hypothesis for this prevalent trend i.e. showing smoking and tobacco in movies thereby influencing the impressionable youth. This article briefly discusses the merits and demerits of this hypothesis and in the end suggests a method of controlling the rising level of smoking in the United States of America. It shall also briefly touch the history of smoking, the reason why it escalated and why it fell. These previous trends are kept as a focal point in the end when a recommendation for action is presented in the conclusion. Smoking and Its Increasing Prevalence Introduction All over the globe including the U.S.A, there is a rising concern by the medical agencies and public health insitutions in regards to the vice of Smoking. They are calling for Hollywood movies that contain scenes where people are smoking; to be rated as adult or explicit. The concept and reasoning behind this outcry is that enforcing such a rating might end up reducing the number of youth who are exposed to such scenes, within the course of watching a movie, that according to them, is one of the most direct causes for young teens to take up smoking and even that, at an early stage of their lives (Cnossen, 2008). With the help of a scientific consensus conducted by a huge spectrum of professional health organizations that includes the World Health Organization, National Cancer Institute and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention displayed that the films and movies which contain scenes in which the actors are smoking acts as a catalyst in inciting the young people to smoke and is the consistent finding of a dose response relationship, and like in any concern in regards to the public health which is related to a dose response. The single best alternative in order to deal with such a problem is lowering the dose, that recalls the topic of discussion. There needs to be the ratings of adult content for any movies which have use of tobacco and live smoking on screen in it (Eysenck, 2006). Simon Chapman and Matthew C. Farrelly published an essay in the PLoS Medicine. They made four arguments in opposition to the change of rating of movies that have smoking scenes to adult. The first and foremost point they suggest is that those researches or studies that show the link between acceptance of smoking by teenagers at an early age and their exposure to movies or film scenes that have smoking in them are not in any way controlled, which means that they are free from any sort of manipulation of numerous other factors for instance alcohol, violence, recreation drug portrayal, coarse language and of course sexual content and also smoking. The next point they presented states, that any claims in regards to the exposure to smoking in the movies resulting in an increasing in smoking prevalence in youth is crudely reductionist, while at the same time blatantly ignoring the huge exposure to such scenarios of smoking littered elsewhere throughout the society. Thirdly they further state that in regards to the classification of movies to adult rating, it is a futile gesture since the children can access more of such material by using the more popular medium, the internet. Lastly they say there is a merit of concern over the assumption that in case any cause is felt rational enough, the state itself needs to implement the control censor on any and all the cultural artifacts for instance movies, arts, books and theatre that are present within its’ jurisdiction (Chapman & Farrelly, 2011). Discussion The beliefs which Matthew & Simon’s literature is founded on is the fact that they say, teenagers decide on watching movies under the influence of a huge variety of perceived factors for instance their friends and families, the publicity stunts about the trailers, casts and even particular genres that have an effect on them, the soundtracks and action sequences littered throughout the movie and even the special effects which are used in it. It might be probable that any young person who is running the risk of taking up smoking presently or in the near future, actually and in full aware, watch particular movies. Such movies might have scenes in which the actors are smoking as compared such genres which they don’t watch (Chapman & Farrelly, 2011). Any and all teenagers that are running the risk of smoking are ofcourse at an increased risk of additional co-morbidities as well as the risky behaviors and hence can be concluded to prefer movies that are involved with scenes, which might cause a concern in their parents, for instance, rebellious behavior, drinking, sexual activity or even crime. Most commonly smoking is as a part of such tableaux of movies (Dalton et al, 2009). Farelly & Simon additionally state for a fact that any effort merits high praise which strives to expose and outlaw the hidden paid industry which uses product placements of tobacco in the films; which is simply a marketing gimmick in order to advertise the product and at the same time increase the awareness in the TV and the film industry (Dalton et al, 2009). They both further state that changing the rating to adult might cause censorship that they say in their argument above. Having smoking scenes in the movie is not something that is declared as against the law by the adult rating proposal within films. Instead it works as completely opposite, the producer might still insist on adding the smoking shots to their films, since this action would automatically act as a catalyst for the adult rating and hence attract large number of people towards itself. They are of the opinion that this a common fact and in the world of the motion picture, such decisions are taken on a routine; when they are trying to calibrate the amount of language, violence and sexual content for all manner of movies. So such proposals would only bring adverse affects rather than prevent the cause from happening. Adult Trends in Cigarette Smoking in the United States The numbers of adult smokers in the United States of America have changed a lot over the time frame in the last hundred years. Smoking has gained momentum from late 19th century after the huge large scale creation and advertising of cigarettes that were rolled via machines. In spite of the fact that many organizations protested or showed their concerns in regards to the negative effects on the health of individuals that smoking had; there was a dramatic increase in cigarettes being consumed between 1900-1960 (Brandt, 2007, p. 90-92). Furthermore there was a twofold increase in the cigarette consumption during the 1940s’, when the tobacco companies proclaimed it patriotic and in line with the U.S. military to smoke during the WWII (Eysenck, 2006, p. 244-250). When the middle of the 20th century finally rolled in, smoking was viewed as a normative and socially acceptable behavior. Then also during the end of 1950s and the initial period of 1960’s, there was a rise in the concerns in the health department as to the effects of smoking. A first Surgeon General’s Report publication in 1964 initially showed the effects of smoking on health. There has been a decline in the rates of smoking from the end of 1960’s. The 1986 publications of the Surgeon General’s Report, which highlighted the adverse effects of second hand smoke and the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998, that punished tobacco companies for denying the negative health effects of the product, caused a further jump in the number of people who refrained from smoking (Cnossen, 2008, p. 76-77). In modern times, almost around 20% of the adults both male and female in the United States of America smoke. Conclusion The fact of the matter remains, that smoking is injurious to health, a fact which has been proven by countless of studies and tests. Still, in spite of knowing its negative effects, more and more people are choosing to take up smoking. Unfortunately, smoking in itself is addicting. Hence once the youth, under the influence of movies, internet or even their surroundings, decide to pick up smoking, quitting it becomes very difficult for them. Bearing this in mind, even though Chapman & Farelly were right in their own regards, steps or measures need to be taken which would discourage the youth from picking up on this habit. If it requires ratings on movies, Parental access on the internet and restriction to minors in smoke rooms, then these steps or measure need to be taken in order to ensure a healthy and smoke free environment tomorrow. Furthermore, the tobacco companies should be discouraged from producing cigarettes. References Brandt, A. M. (2007). “The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America”. New York: Basic Books. Pp. 90-92 Chapman S, Farrelly MC (2011). Four Arguments Against The Adult Rating Of Movies With Smoking Scenes. PLoS Medicine. Pp. 8-10 Cnossen S. (2008). “Theory and Practice of Excise Taxation: Smoking, Drinking, Gambling, Polluting, and Driving,” Oxford University Press. Pp. 76-77 Dalton M, Beach M, Adachi-Mejia AM, Longacre MR, Matzkin AL, et al. (2009). “Early Exposure To Movie Smoking Predicts Established Smoking By Older Teens And Young Adul”. pp. 123. Eysenck J. (2006). “Smoking, Health, and Personality,” Basic Books pp. 244-250 Works Consulted Hornik, R. C. (2006). Public health communication: Evidence for behavior change. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Kenneth G. (2007) “Smoking Behavior, Information Sources, and Consumption Values of Teenagers: Implications for Public Policy and Other Intervention Failures,” Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 36. Niederdeppe, J. and Skelton, A., (2009), Media strategies to promote smoking cessation among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations: What do we know, what do we need to learn, and what should we do now?, Social Science and Medicine vol. 67. Read More