One of the largest issues today is adolescent smoking. According to a heath based website, nearly 90% of adult smokers start while they are still teens and they never intend to get hooked. They may start by bumming a cigarette or two from a friend at a party, and then go on to buying an occasional pack. Soon they realize that they can't go without that pack. They've gotten used to reaching for a cigarette first thing in the morning, after meals, or during any stressful time. They become addicted, both physically and psychologically. According to the American Lung Association, each day 6,000 children under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette. Almost 2,000 of them will become regular smokers – that’s 757, 000 new smokers annually! …show more content…
These teens may think that smoking shows that they are old enough to make their own decisions.
To make matters worse, the tobacco companies are making millions from teen smokers. Tobacco companies use advertising to manipulate both teens and adults. They present images that are hard to shake, even when you know the truth. Have you ever seen a cigarette ad where people are wrinkled, middle-aged or coughing and in the hospital dying of lung cancer? Of course not! In most ads, smokers are shown the way that teens would like to be: attractive and hip, sophisticated and elegant, or rebellious.
A 2002 study performed by the Research Triangle Institute states that the tobacco companies make 1.8 billion dollars annually from underage sales. It is interesting that they are making such large profits when it is illegal for a person under the age of 18 to purchase cigarettes. A recent survey by the The American Lung Association indicated that among students under 18 years old who were current smokers, 69.4% reported never being asked for proof of age when buying cigarettes in a store, and 62.4% were not refused purchase because of their age.
The tobacco industry kills more people in North America from Monday to Thursday of each week than the terrorists murdered in total on September 11, 2001. That sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Well, smoking is an epidemic that affects us all, whether you are a smoker or you aren’t. In order to stop this epidemic, we need to
Imagine your life being slowly sucked away because of a cigarette that costed you money. This is the real truth of what a cigarette does to your life and more than enough reasons on why minors shouldn’t smoke. It has been studied that before smoking, minors would do exceptional on their tests that they took at school, but after they started their test scores started to lessen by about 0.08 percent each day from one cigarette. A numerous number teen smokers say that smoking for their age is alright, as they obtain a “high” from it and they have a good time. Even though smoking for minors seems well enough, it isn’t since it affects the genes in their brains negatively, the U.S. has even seen the threat of it and banned
In our communities, the youth can easily identified any of tobacco’s product. The author, Steven Reinberg, published , Tobacco Companies Targeting Teens, Study Says, states that the tobacco product, Marlboro, is highly purchased by high school students according to usnews.com. Mr. McGoldrick states that the three brands, 90 percent is being marketed. Most companies hold their ground saying that their tobacco products are not meant to bought by youth, but somehow still managed to in our children’s hands, in his article, Tobacco Companies Targeting Teens, Study Says (steven Reinberg). According to Erin Brodwin, author of “Tobacco Companies Still Target Youth despite A Globally Treaty”, states that children all over the world can identify the tobacco brands. Not only are children picking up their ideas from television, but also from public. Children knowing which brands shows how serious the addiction can be. Seeing how easily the product being shown to the youth is another way of starting. If less smokers are seen in public, the lower the numbers will
Tobacco companies should be prevented from using advertising tactics that target teenagers. There has always been controversy as to how tobacco companies should prevent using advertising tactics to target teenagers. As controversial as this is tobacco companies shouldn’t advertise teen smoking. Many teens may be lured to believe cigarette advertising because it has been part of the American Culture for years, magazine ads and the media target young people, and these companies receive a drastic increase financially; however, the advertising by these cigarette companies has disadvantages such as having to campaign against their own company, limiting their cigarette advertising and becoming a controversial dilemma as to encouraging teenagers
In 2014, 24.6% of high school students reported that they used some type of tobacco product in the past 30 days (‘National Youth Tobacco Survey’). There are several factors that influence youth to begin using tobacco. Although it is clear that peer pressure can initiate smoking, multiple studies find that tobacco marketing causes an increase in youth tobacco use.
Teens technically shouldn't see the marketing done by alcohol, and tobacco but due to the extent the reach advertising it can't be helped so they have taken it up to themselves to take advantage of their exposure to marketing.
The influence of social environment is the main reason for teenagers to contact with smoking. The message from mess media shows that smoking is a normal activity. Smoking among peers, parents, or relatives will promote teenagers try to use tobacco. Although the legal smoking age is 18 years
Addiction and substance abuse is a personal fear in most people worldwide. Young people are more susceptible to experimenting with tobacco and alcohol, than middle aged or older people are. Most people reported smoking at the age or eighteen, when they could legally purchase
Teenage smoking can be a result of the influence of other teens, or maybe the amount of peer pressure. This can cause a teen to want to smoke or even think about smoking (Alcid, Arthur, page 1). Statistics show that 794 student and 22.4 percent of teens claimed to be tobacco users. (Alcid, Arthur, page 1). Teens tend to be more abrasive when smoking, and seem to act different while smoking and once they have gotten into the habit of smoking make it a constant thing. In 2003, 21.9 percent of high school students currently smoke cigarettes (Alcid, Arthur, page 1).
A High school student starts off with just trying a cigarette, then started smoking just about one cigarette a day, then became addict, he ended up smoking for 30 years, he developed throat cancer and had to breathe through a surgically made hole in his neck for the rest of his life. Just trying tobacco as a teen increases your chances by 80 percent of being addicted to some kind of tobacco in your future as being an adult (Bratsis Michael E). Teen and even children are trying tobacco products earlier and earlier every year. Tobacco products are becoming more advanced for example: the E-Cig. Tobacco producers are coming up with new way to put nicotine into your body. Having this teens want to try the new, non-researched, tobacco
There are many things, people don’t understand. One inquiring question is why teens smoke. There can be wishful thinking on the causes that maybe known to the teens themselves outside of the situation(s) that may start the causes. The most common and possible causes are Pressure amongst their peers, smoking availability, to promotion through industry advertisement, to the main causes of family situations, and possible negative influences. These are some of the possible reasons that cause teens to smoke before the legal age of 18 years old, and these causes can be the main factors in contributing to teenage smoking.
To illustrate, several studies have identified social controls whose absence has caused adolescents to experiment and initiate in tobacco use. Starting at home, the influence of parental attitude and behavior toward adolescent smoking has a major impact on adolescent smoking. Newman and Ward (1989) sampled 735 students from 12 schools in and around one moderately sized Midwestern city, 18.5% of the sample were smokers. In this study, Newman & Ward asked the students questions via a questionnaire in order to rate the parental attitudes. One question asked was, "With regards to my smoking cigarettes, my parents/guardian would: threaten to punish me if I smoked; haven't told me how they feel if I smoke? ; have told me they don't care if I smoke" (Newman and Ward, 1989, p. 150). Two-thirds of the students reported that both parents would be upset if they smoked. An interesting note was that about two-thirds of the nonsmoking adolescents reported parental disapproval versus one-half of the smoking adolescents. The analysis of the data revealed that when neither parent smoked and
The Institute of Medicine found that children, who are born between the years 2000 and 2019, would suffer 249,000 fewer premature deaths and 45,000 fewer deaths from lung cancer, when the legal age to purchase tobacco is increased from 18 to 21 years of age (atg.wa.gov 2016). Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., which causes many chronic health complications such as heart disease, cancer, and lung disease (atg.wa.gov 2016). Raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products to 21 in Washington state will decrease the use later in adult life. Children, specifically ages 15 to 17, are targeted the most by tobacco companies because of their vulnerability, creates an addiction to the nicotine, which often results in loyalty to a specific tobacco company. Needham, Massachusetts, campaigned to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 in 2005 and won. Results are already compelling, showing that between 2006 and 2012 Needham’s high school smoking rate dropped more than half among girls and boys (atg.wa.gov 2016). Given that nicotine can be such an addictive drug and be seen to be used as a coping mechanism, specifically ages 15 to 17 through their developing stages of life, need to encounter difficulty in accessing tobacco products. According to the Center of Disease Control, one in 13 Americans age 17 or younger alive today is estimated to die prematurely due to the effects of smoking (atg.wa.gov 2016). Raising the
They'll even recite the statistics to you: Smoking kills over 1,000 people a day in this country alone, and is far deadlier, in terms of mortality rates, than any hard drug. And then they'll blow their smoke into your face. The only way to get any leverage with teenagers is to return fire with fire, taking on the various influences that make smoking seem attractive. We need, in other words, to find new ways to make smoking look ridiculous. John F. Banzhaf III had no particular animosity toward the cigarette companies when he sat down in his Bronx home on Thanksgiving Day 1966 to watch a football game with his father.
Most smokers started their cigarette addictions when they were only minors. Tobacco companies are fully aware of this and rely on it for better sales. “To maintain sales, the tobacco industry must recruit more than 2 million people every year to replace those who die and those who quit smoking. Since 90% of beginning smokers are children or teenagers, this means that the industry must entice at least 5000 youngsters daily to take up smoking” (Andre and Velasquez 7). This means that advertising smoking towards minors is crucial to keeping these companies in business. They could not survive without underage smokers. Luring children to smoke is beyond unethical. No company should be allowed to entice kids into an addictive habit that kills every day.
The author Rachel Kranz in “Straight Talk About Smoking,’ states, “Smoking more means that Lynette has less to spend on pizza and after-school snacks, because she’s got to make sure she can afford three or four packs of cigarettes each week.” (Kranz). Peer pressure to smoke can also be a way of teenagers proving that they are mature. Maturity is something that all teenagers have been told to obtain; especially by adults. The legal smoking age in most states is twenty-one, and most adults do smoke. Teenagers think that they can feel more grown up when they smoke and fit in society. Kaz Vorpal in the book of “Teen Smoking,’” states, “Adults do certain things, and therefore children who do those things feel they are more like grownups.” (Vorpal 66). Movies also contributes to teen smoking by portraying smoking as a cool, pleasurable, and harmless thing. All these factors give the teen a pressure to start smoking and never realize that the Nicotine that is found in the cigarette is addictive and causes major health problems like cancer.