Tobacco Control: Economic Factors Of Smoking

Improved Essays
Smoking has attributed to millions of preventable deaths in the United States. Many people who smoke profusely for years, end up contracting lung cancer (Tavernise & Gebeloff, 2014). Cancer is caused by viruses, bacteria, radiation and some chemicals – chemicals found in tobacco products used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. In recent years, the smoking rate has begun to decline, yet people of lower incomes continue to be at a higher risk of contracting lung cancer due to their smoking habits which are linked to community, economic and environmental factors.
I took a closer look at a newspaper article published by The New York Times. In “Smoking Proves Hard to Shake Among the Poor,” Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Gebeloff point
…show more content…
in most high-income countries, comprehensive tobacco control legislations have now been adopted” (ClinicalKey, 2012). Here we can see a huge discrepancy between the two sides of the spectrum. One group, with fewer resources, is on the brink of having an epidemic which could kill millions of people, while another group is getting the help they need to reduce the amount of smoking. This view can also be transferred on to a smaller scale seen in the newspaper article by Tavernise and Gebeloff. In America, for example, there are economic and educational divides. Those who have a high school education or less, are more likely to live below average and be susceptible to smoking. While those who get a higher education and go to college are less likely to fall under, but if they did, they have the resources available to them. In the aforementioned county in Kentucky, people there find it hard to quit even with the incentive of others dying around them (Tavernise & Gebeloff, 2014). Stuber, Galea and Link suggest that “…studies have shown that blue collar workers reside in occupational environments that are less supportive of quitting” (Stuber, Galea & Link, 2008). This point demonstrates that in impoverished towns, few people have higher education and therefore …show more content…
This has proven to be helpful in states with high smoking rates, however, in “Smoking Proves Hard to Shake Among the Poor” this point was not mentioned. Instead the direct involvement of tobacco companies advertising in low-income areas in hopes of selling cigarettes at a cheaper price (Tavernise & Gebeloff, 2014). This is seen as acceptable and normal in this community because smoking is dominant in the

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    The tobacco taxation policy in countries like Australia and Canada have reported a decrease in tobacco purchase (Jackson et al. 2006 and (Lin and Fawkes, 2007). Contrariwise the WHO world cancer report (2014) states that, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths i.e. in 2012, 1.59 million people died of lung cancer and that 20% of the global cancer and 70% of the global lung cancer are caused by tobacco use. This indicates that the tobacco taxation policy does not tackle the reduction of smoking in individuals especially those of the lower economic status i.e. the Indigenous Australians who have the highest lung cancer related…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This because of the tobacco corporations influence on this specific neighborhood. Tobacco corporations contribute to the prevalence of asthma in East Harlem more than the Upper East Side because of their control over the product prices.(3) Companies purposely reduce the prices of tobacco products in impoverished communities to generate higher revenue from sales. They also release a higher amount of advertisements directed towards the community residents with appealing slogans. For example, as awareness of the dangers of smoking increase, tobacco advertisements propose a safer alternative, electronic cigarettes.…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This paper contains an argument in favor of continuing to promote healthy living in Licking County. Tobacco in Licking County continues to be an issue thus declining the healthy living. While tobacco use continues to be a right to everyone over the age of eighteen in all fifty states,it additionally continues to cause disease, disability,and death in not just the United States but Licking County as well. Keeping and enforcing prevention plans in Licking County for tobacco use would not only benefits the people using tobacco but the ones around them as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(2014)…

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to a research done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 443,000 people die primary from smoking and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking each year. People who smoke, ignore or do not fully know and understand what smoking does to your body and social life. In the past there was a lot of money and assets involved on the tobacco industry. There was very little movement of change on not using tobacco; however, in recent years a lot of organizations are doing ads to prevent or to reduce tobacco use. These ads target mostly the youth, the use can change and have a renewed generation.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Tobacco advertising refers to the promotion of tobacco products, such as cigarettes, in the media and at retail outlets. Tobacco advertising authenticates smoking, it encourages people to become smokers and tries to get existing smoker to change to or buy a certain brand. Many argue that tobacco advertising does not increase the profit for tobacco products. As well as finding it unacceptable for tobacco companies to target young individuals, in an effort to recruit them as new customers to replace those who give up or die. Eventually, tobacco advertising try to recognize, recall, and appeal by fulfilling these needs they attract many…

    • 103 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    These rates are alarming, as tobacco use has been known to cause many diseases including respiratory disease, lung disease, and heart disease, as well as various cancers including lung, oral, esophageal, and pancreatic. Other effects include worsening of chronic health conditions such as asthma and increased risks of developing diabetes or suffering from a stroke. (South Dakota Department of Health, 2015, p.5) Not only are the health effects dangerous enough to cause alarm, but the cost of health care and the cost of…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Lead Author Judith Prochaska, Stanford Prevention Research Center in California, explains that the harmful effects of smoking to a person’s health has been known for more than fifty years. Recently she told Reuters about new evidence that has been brought to light. That smoking can also hurt a person’s success in career life and even lower the income. But the sample in San Francisco is isolated since smoking is uncommon because of smoke-free…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nanny State Analysis

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages

    With all the education, and with all the nudging, it became much easier for lawmakers to start banning smoking in public places, even in places smoking was traditionally accepted like bars and bowling alleys. Additionally, nudging and then formally these bans have led to a reduction in tobacco use among younger Americans (Vuolo, Kelly, & Kadowaki, 2016). Nudging has been effective in that instance, and has led to…

    • 1257 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Statistics from NHS Digital (2014) illustrates that around 22% of 16-24 year olds smoked. Smoking at a young age can consequently lead to symptoms of addiction, in as little as weeks or days after occasional smoking first begins. Particularly in the younger generation, peer pressure can allude to make an individual start smoking because they feel pressure to fit in with society and feel this is the norm. Similarly, Benjamin (2012) suggests that peer group influences emerge as powerful motivators of behaviour change. Living in an environment where people smoke, could make people’s perceptions change into thinking that smoking is usual or acceptable behaviour.…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Smoking is Bad and should be illegal” In Sally Chen’s “Smoking is Bad for everyone so it should be illegal,” Chen states smoking should be illegal. It breaks Chen’s heart to see high school kids standing on one foot outside school property and puffing away furtively and defiantly on their cigarettes. Most teens often have to deal with their classmates. They are pressured to be start smoking and they think it makes them popular.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Since the 1960’s health agencies across America have spearheaded educational programs in schools that focus on the physical damage from tobacco use. Increased awareness of diseases such as emphysema and lung cancer has aided reduced rates of high school aged smokers dramatically (Office of Adolescent Health, 2016). Each year however, some 480,000 deaths in the United States are the result of tobacco use (Bonnie et al., 2015). Studies show that long-term smoking habits often develop in adolescence.…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, claiming over 480,000 lives each year. In addition, smokers are more likely to develop conditions such as heart disease, cancer, lung disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema (XXX). Cigarette use is high among low income African Americans, and is usually initiated at a younger age (XXX). Many people are aware of these detrimental effects of cigarette smoke, but few are aware of how cigarette smoke affects the body from a nutritional standpoint.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Smoking and smoking cessation rates differ from country to another in terms of economic and social differences, and the objectives were to completion of treatment to support quit attempts and success in quitting smoking. Smokers is a major determinant of health inequalities and the smokers should make a lot of effort to quit smoking, deprived smokers should be supported first because they are more vulnerable and more likely to smoke. Rates of success in quitting can be enhanced considerably with adequate medication and ethical and psychological support. There are studies in some countries aimed at evaluating the completion of smoking cessation therapy for four weeks using a newer and larger data set and minimize allergies.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tobacco Free Kids makes many points on how the federal excise tax on cigarettes is not just positively impacting the individual who chooses to decrease or cease their cigarette use, but also the government, health care costs, and the generated revenues. While this poses incentive to both sides, it is still shown that nearly all U.S. states have been hesitant or slow to adapt to the increase of this tax on cigarettes. According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, “because of federal and state cigarette tax increases, cigarette sales declined by 8.3 percent in 2009, one of the largest declines in years. The large increase in the federal cigarette tax helped spur more rapid declines in adult and youth smoking rates, after years without much change (2017).” In addition to being beneficial for both the government and the youth population, increase of the excise tax on cigarettes has gained support from all political…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Government Should Ban Cigarettes Shockingly, people consume a deadly product that kills millions of people a year. Approximately six million people die a year from smoking cigarettes (“Global Health”). Without question smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. Not only are smokers harming themselves but, the people around them as well. Cigarette smoking is harmful and a financially wasteful habit that should be banned by the government.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays