Tobacco: A Global CrisisEssay title: Tobacco: A Global CrisisTobacco has become one of the biggest problems facing the world today. It is the leading cause of preventable death in the world (Ross, Powell, Tauras, and Chaloupka, 2005). Tobacco can include smokeless tobacco, cigarettes and cigars. Those using the products are not the only ones feeling the effects but those people who receive second-hand effects are also at a great risk for experiencing chances at diseases. Developing countries are seeing dramatic increases in tobacco use, leading to a major epidemic of the twenty-first century (Yach, 2002). Today, there has been a large increase in children and teenage smokers and the problem is only getting worse.
Safer
• Use in children’s health-care services: A 2010 report by the World Health Organization found that around 85% of young children are dying of malaria, a disease that continues to worsen over the past several decades (WHO, 2010). The estimated number of deaths in South Africa is estimated at a staggering 200 000 people a year. In 2012, more than half of all births in South African health centres came from the aged under 25 (Dudley and Pritchard, 2012). According to a study conducted by the WHO, only 1.4% of South Africans get the life-saving drugs in the free, online version of A-Gut, the European version of A-Gut (P. E. Strossi and N. P., 2010). The number of children in hospital with A-Gut is estimated at 1.6 million (Pitkin, P. E., et al., 2013). The cost to the government of A-Gut is approximately 20 million dollars. More than 50% of children who are receiving A-Gut prescriptions live in poverty. • Drug use and addiction
• Adultery: A 2005 report by the World Health Organization found that less than 6% of all adults who misuse, or are addicted to prescription narcotics for pain relief are among the 14.4 million people living in poverty in the developed world every year (Boehner et al., 2004). A recent survey by World Health Organization found that a staggering 4.9% of young people are diagnosed by their doctors with type 2 diabetes (World Health Organization Research Program, 2006), and those with anemia are at greater risk for future diabetes and heart attacks as they age (Tutterskogler et al., 2010). A 2007 report by the World Health Organization found that 1.3% of young adults in countries in which children are poor reported using prescription pain relievers as medicines for anxiety, depression, and pain (World Health Organization Research Program, 2006). A 2010 study by the World Health Organization found that 1 in 11 children in developing countries received at least 4 prescription pain relievers (World Health Organization Research Program, 2010). There are a number of factors that can affect a person’s ability in life-threatening situations. A report by the WHO found that one in eight health workers in Canada suffers from substance abuse at some point in their careers (The World Health Organization Research Program, 2007). These factors include: mental illness; family members of mental patients who are drug abusers; and physical abuse. • Substance abuse and addiction are not mutually exclusive. Children and youth with mental illness have the risk of developing a substance abuse or dependence (Dudley et al., 2013). A study published in 2012 found the same with people taking A-Gut prescription medicines, with the average
Currently, tobacco leads to four million deaths per year, but is expected to rise to ten million deaths per year by the year 2030 (www.who.int). There are 1.1 billion tobacco users in the world today and this amount is going to increase within the next few years (www.who.int). The amount of tobacco users in developed countries is decreasing slowly, but tobacco users in developing countries are on the increase. Brundtland (1999) said, “A long-term tobacco user has a 50% chance of dying prematurely from tobacco-caused disease.”
The main form of tobacco use is cigarettes and it affects the user and the people receiving second-hand smoke. Smoking in the United States has decreased in recent years and currently is only 23% of the population (www.cancer.org). One in five high school students admit to smoking cigarettes (www.cancer.org). The younger someone starts smoking the more likely they will become addicted and the more health problems they will suffer (www.cancer.org).
Athlete’s using smokeless tobacco is a growing problem. A study was conducted in 1997 on NCAA athletes showed 22.5% of college male and female athletes use smokeless tobacco (Horn, Maniar, Dino, Gao, & Meckstroth, 2000). More than half of the athletes reported using smokeless tobacco in high school or before for the first time (Horn et al., 2000). Majority of younger athletes did not realize that there was a comparable amount of nicotine in cigarettes and smokeless tobacco (Horn et al., 2000). The study showed that the blue-collar, southern population of the United States is at the greatest risk for using smokeless tobacco.
Besides parental influence and peer pressure, there are three other factors influencing teenage smoking, the sale of tobacco to minors, school policies on smoking, and the advertising and promotion of tobacco (DiFranza, 1992). In the 70’s and 80’s teenagers were allowed to smoke on school grounds, but when schools implemented a no tolerance policy dropped significantly. Around the country, the legal age to purchase cigarettes is 18, however reports show that 75% of tobacco retailer’s sale to minors (DiFranza, 1992). In the United Kingdom, the smoking age is currently 16, but they want to raise it to 18 to lower the percentage of children smoking (
African-American and Puerto Rican students tend to be the largest group of smokers among high school students. A study reported that 20% of African Americans and 33% of Latinos in high schools currently use cigarettes (Brook, Balka, Rosen, Brook, and Adams, 2005). Researchers believe that smoking at the high school level will lead to behavioral problems as young adults (Brook et al., 2005). The students that participated in this study were in grades 7th to 10th in the Harlem area of New York City (Brook et al., 2005). The study revealed that,” continuous smokers acted out more than that of nonsmokers, had high measures of antisocial behavior, and the higher proportion of peers who smoked, associated with peers who were tolerant of smoking (Brook et al., 2005).” The study reports that those choosing to engage in smoking probably do it because of friends who smoke and they select friends that are similar to them (Brook et al., 2005).
The Study
Based on our results, it is clear that the black student of high school is doing the same thing as Caucasian students. We found that African-Americans, the highest school students, smoked three or more cigarettes in the evening. This fact was confirmed by a significant number of people at high school, including two African American high school students that met our criteria: one African American male and one Caucasian female student (Bagley and Johnson, 2010). The results of the study were based on participants’ first and third grade experience at a home-schooled school in Virginia and were not based on demographic data. The study is currently being published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The second question was whether, given the current status of African American students, smoking has been associated with smoking more of their self-control than any other factor (Bakker et al., 2007). A study published in early 2010 suggested that African American students, on average, were more likely to use nicotine than any other group (Bakker, 2007). We also found that, considering previous work for the African American community and many others who may not be aware of the association, those who were in the relationship with tobacco smoking had a higher risk of smoking cessation, an effect we expected based upon some recent findings (Bakker et al., 2007). Furthermore, the African American Student at Harvard, who did not have a medical excuse, did use cigarettes during his study (Bakker, 2007).
These results support our hypotheses that smoking is involved in some degree with racial composition across students. The racial composition of the current academic environment is largely influenced by the age of the school, and by the amount of time that students spend engaged in smoking. By this measure, African-American students are more educated in public administration, more competitive than their white peers, and are more physically active than the other group. Students are thus at increased risk of becoming involved in criminal activity and smoking, especially when it comes to drug crimes.
The Role of Racial Influences
In contrast to our sample of black students, no white students in our study did not use tobacco during the study. These studies are all in the last four academic years, and although we have a few people whose college degree was from Virginia, this is not statistically significant for this study. We did examine whether the number of white middle school students who reported smoking during the study was significantly related to the number of African Americans in their cohort:
When it comes down to it, among all whites of an educational level, the number of African American students who reported (whether by use of their own personal medical histories or using a tobacco-related medication) used tobacco-based drugs is fairly small. About 20 percent and 4 percent of middle school students, respectively, reported an interaction between drug use and smoking.
The study was conducted with students from the University of Virginia. These students are the same age of that student’s parents and were not enrolled in any of our previous research. Although the study was conducted last year, it likely would have been conducted two years earlier, as the university does not regularly include student data that may serve as support for the study that they submitted online.
We identified a significant relationship between having smoking in the school environment and the number of African Americans in our study. This finding may relate to the fact that high school students are more likely to have an interaction with the media than low school students. One study found that the number of African American students who reported using tobacco at school was significantly related to the number of black students in our study. However, these numbers are not
African-Americans also face the problem of smoking menthol cigarettes that could potentially be more dangerous than nonmenthol cigarettes (www.cancer.org). When using a menthol cigarette they tend to take deeper inhales and hold it the inhaled smoke longer, because of the cooling