Unraveling a forgotten crisis:
Making Light Of The Darkness of Smoking.
Although cigarette and general tobacco use has been steadily declining globally as of the most recent few decades, we often forgot just how problematic it has been as a public health crisis even in recent years. Often in the public eye it has been relegated to a problem of the past, but when looking at the data, it’s evident this is not the case.
87% of all lung cancer deaths in that time have been attributed to smoking (source).
According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s Report on the Health Consequences of Smoking from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; since 1964, smoking has been causally linked to causing cancers of the oropharynx, larynx, esophagus, trachea, bronchus, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidneys, cervix, bladder, and most namely the lungs, additionally to causing stroke, blindness, cataracts, periodontitis, aortic aneurysms, heart disease, pneumonia, diabetes, reduced female fertility, erectile dysfunction, tuberculosis, asthma, arthritis, macular degeneration, reduced immune function, and so, so much more. Need I go on? (Source)
People often underestimate just how deadly this problem has been over time:
Currently, on a global scale where do we see the highest prevalence of smoking and general tobacco use ?
Southeastern Asia and Europe seem to have the largest percentage of the population currently using tobacco. It’s interesting to note that the tobacco crisis doesn’t always tend to manifest in countries that are poorer or less developed, many developed countries are among the most prevalent smokers.
Among the 5 most tobacco using countries with a significant population size, nearly 50% of the countries’ adult populations are actively smoking.
Although in each of these countries smoking rates have decreased in the past several years, these decreases have been slow and these countries see thousands of people still die prematurely every year due to effects of smoking. For the people of these countries, the unfortunate reality is that its simply just become a normality and little action is being taken to change that (source).
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Pulling our focus back on the United States; the country has made significant progress towards reducing smoking prevalence since the 1960s, where the prevalence is estimated to have been at 42%, comparable to Bangladesh today (source).
Where do we see the highest prevalence of smoking in the United States?
Generally, we find that the poorest states tend to have the highest smoking rates, with the 5 worst states being West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana Mississippi and Kentucky, which have among the highest poverty rates in the country (source), which is interesting because this isn’t necessarily the case globally as poorer countries don’t always have higher smoking rates.
How does age play a factor in tobacco use?
Among the 5 states with the highest smoking prevalence, the age group with the largest percentage of smokers is in 25 to 44 year olds. The sad truth is that a large section of people that start smoking at that age will die because of it before they even have a chance to be counted as a statistic for being 65 years or older.
The concerning thing with cigarette users and why it’s a problem that is so difficult to combat is the ferocious addiction that manifests in the majority of its users. Of active cigarette smokers, the vast majority, over 70% smoke every single day, and among this majority, many smoke half a pack, a pack or several packs per day.
What we see from this is that the majority of cigarette users are not occasional, “smoke every once in a while when they want to”-type users, they’re addiction-riddled users that smoke everyday because the high nicotine contents in cigarettes aggressively manipulate people’s behavior so as they constantly crave the feeling of smoking. This is why the tobacco crisis has been so deadly, because despite many people being fully conscious of the incredibly long list of negative health impacts actively smoking causes, they become slaves to their addictions and are unable to quit despite trying again and again, making them by definition less customers and more victims.
Adjusted for inflation (2006), between 1940 and 2005…
250 billion dollars
…has been spent in the US on cigarette advertising.
Luckily, public view has evidently changed regarding smoking over the past few decades, and continues to change for the better.
A Gallup poll took data on the public’s perception on the dangers of smoking during 1966 and again in 2001, and found that in 1966, only 40% of the American public viewed smoking as a major cause of cancer, while in 2001 this percentage has increase to 71% (source).
This has been the result of a variety of factors, namely that overtime, the scientific findings of the many dangers of cigarette usage became more and more mainstream, and culture changed along with it. Cigarettes were slowly banned in more and more public spaces, increased taxes and bans on tobacco advertising were put into place, and mandatory warning labels of negative health affects were mandated to be required on tobacco products (source).
Of course, it’s important to discuss silver-linings in all of this. Although traditional cigarette usage has been steadily declining not only in US but across the world (source), various other substances have posed the danger of taking their place, some which are substantially more damaging, and some which current understanding of health effects are not well known, including things like e-cigarettes that are actually gaining prevalence.
Despite the fact that cigarette use is on the decline globally, it’s hard to say whether or not the situation as a whole will improve in the long term as it’s important that not only societal perception of cigarettes continues to negatively view them as the damaging substance they are, but that as new industries, products and substances emerge, widespread understanding of their potential dangers and harm spread faster than their prevalence among our populations.
