Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide. Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 440,000 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as babies born prematurely due to prenatal maternal smoking and victims of "secondhand" exposure to tobacco's carcinogens. Smoking costs the United States over $150 billion each year in health-care costs including $81.9 billion in mortality-related productivity loses and $75.5 billion in excess medical expenditures.
In the United States, an estimated 25.6 million men and 22.6 million women are smokers. These people are at higher risk of heart attack and stroke. The latest estimates for persons age 18 and older show:
Among whites, 25.1 percent of men and 21.7 percent of women smoke.
Among black or African Americans, 27.6 percent of men and 18.0 percent of women smoke.
Among Hispanics/Latinos, 23.2 percent of men and 12.5 percent of women smoke.
Among Asians, 21.3 percent of men and 6.9 percent of women smoke.
Studies show that smoking prevalence is higher among those with 9-11 years of education (35.4 percent) compared with those with more than 16 years of education (11.6 percent). It's highest among persons living below the poverty level (33.3 percent).
Tobacco started growing in the Americas in 6000 BC. 100 BC, people started using tobacco leaves for smoking and chewing. Now it has grown in a nasty, hard to break habit. The first paper rolled cigarette was made in 1832. It is widely believed that Egyptians soldiers were the first to make this, now famous past-time. Other historians suggest that Russians and Turks learned about cigarettes from the French, who in turn may have learned about smoking from the Spanish.
It is thought that paupers in Seville were making a form of cigarette, known as ‘papelette’, from the butts of discarded cigars and papers as early as the 17th century. In 1856, the first cigarette factory opened. It was in Walworth, England, and owned by Robert Golag, a veteran of the Crimean War. Four decades later, fears about the effects of cigarette smoking aroused in The Lancet.
During World War I, smoking became hugely popular with soldiers in battlefields of northern Europe and cigarettes became known as ‘soldier’s smoke’. In 1964, the United States Surgeon General Luther Terry announced that smoking caused lung cancer. Shortly after, in 1965, the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act required US Surgeon General’s warning’s on cigarette packs.
Borio, Gene, “Tobacco Timeline: The Twentieth Century 1900-1949—The Rise of the Cigarette.” Chapter 6. 1993-2003.
This essay is aimed to explore, analyse and discuss smoking in adults. Smoking is a public health issue as such is one of the major contributors to high mortality and ill-health in the adults which is preventable (Health and Excellence Care (NICE) (2012). The United Kingdom (UK) is known to have the highest number of people with a history of smoking among people with low socio-economic status (Scriven and Garman, 2006; Goddard and Green, 2005). Smoking is considered a serious epidemic in the UK and the National institute for Health and Excellence Care (NICE, 2012) stated that 28% of adults with low economic status are tobacco smokers compared with 13% of those with economic status or having professional incomes. Furthermore almost 80,000 people died in England in 2011 as a result of smoking related issues and 9,500 admissions of children died due to being second hand smokers (WHO, 2005). This essay focuses on definition of smoking, the aim is to underline the relationship between smoking and the determinants of health and then, the size, prevalence, and morbidity trend of smoking will be explored. Furthermore, some public health policies introduced to confront the issues around smoking will be investigated and finally, the roles of nurses will identify health needs the public so as to promote good health and their wellbeing.
Every year cigarette smoking is responsible for 500,000 premature deaths (Nugel), you do not want to be just another statistic, do you? America’s first cash crop was tobacco. That means that tobacco has been around for a really long time. It was not until 1865, though, that cigarettes were sold commercially. They were sold to soldiers at the end of the Civil War (Dowshen). From then, cigarettes spread like wildfire, and it was not until 1964 that anyone made a stand about the negative effects of tobacco and cigarettes. People start smoking for all different reasons, some to fit in and some to “escape”. Regardless, it is a horrible habit. 3900 children will try their first cigarette today. Amongst adults who currently smoke, 68% of them began at age 18 or younger, and 85% at 21 or younger (American Lung Association). And of all those people, 70% say if they were given another chance they would never have picked up that first cigarette (Tobacco Free Maine). Smoking is responsible for 1 and 5 deaths in the united states, and is the number one preventable cause of death (NLH). Smoking burns and there is no doubt about that, but before one picks up that cigarette, understand the negative effects on not only oneself, but others affected by ones poor choices, like second-hand smoke. Because of smoking cigarettes, many types of cancer, decrease of life quality, and negative health effects have become all too common in the world today.
Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society. During 1995, approximately 2.1 million people in developed countries died as a result of smoking. One tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths in the United States. Lung Cancer mortality are about 23 times higher for current male smokers and 13 times higher for current female smokers compared to a lifelong never-smoker.
Through public education, most elementary school kids can understand that smoking is bad for them and that cigarettes are additive. Cigarettes are addictive due to nicotine, a drug found in tobacco (“Quitting Smoking”, 2015). According to Schneider (2016), some of the greatest health problems associated with smoking include: lung cancer, other cancers, coronary heart disease, other heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, other vascular disease, diabetes mellitus, pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), prenatal conditions, and sudden infant death syndrome. As stated by the Authority of the American Lung Association in an article titled “Health
The origins of tobacco are almost untraceable. As long ago as the 1400s, Christopher Columbus was offered dried tobacco leaves as a gift from the American Indians that he encountered. Quite soon after, sailors brought the tobacco back to Europe and the plant expanded throughout the continent.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses — United States, 2000–2004. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. November 14, 2008;
Tobacco results in upwards of half a million American premature deaths per year. That is more deaths than by HIV, drug and alcohol abuse, automobile accidents,suicides and murders combined. For every one of those deaths, nearly 20 other Americans suffer from a tobacco-related illness.Tobacco-related illness places an enormous burden on the healthcare system, with cigarette smoking driving $193 billion in cost, and second hand smoke adding another $10 million.
On Washington Duke’s 300-acre farm in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1865 the first commercial cigarettes was made. When cigarettes were first invented they were given to the soldiers during the Civil War and it was not until James Bonsack invented the cigarette-making machine in 1881 that cigarette smoking became widespread (http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/tobacco/Tobacco.pdf). During this time no one truly understood the dangers of smoking cigarettes because they had not began to see the side affects caused by the dangerous toxins produced by them. There are thousands of individual substances in tobacco smoke and approximately 150 of those individual substances have been identified as toxicants or otherwise named as harmful and potentially
Cigarette smoking dates back to the early 19th century in Central America. The cigarettes were in the form of reeds and smoking tubes. People like the Mayas and the Aztecs could smoke during religious rituals. Among the Mexicans, Caribbean and the Central and Southern Americans smoking was in the form of cigarette and the cigar. Different plant wrappers were used in the Central and Southern America to roll the cigarette while in Spain they used maize wrappers. Cigarette is believed to have reached France in 1830 and this is where it gained the name cigarette. It is only after the Crimean War that the use of tobacco cigarette gained populace in the English speaking nations. Generally, widespread cigarette smoking could largely be credited to the 20th century in the Western world.
For this paper, I will to focus on smoking in the United States population as smoking causes a significant burden on health care systems and on the economy. Smoking negatively affects most organs, causing cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other diseases. Tobacco use costs more than $300 billion per year in medical care and lost productivity due to premature death and secondhand smoke in the United States. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States (US), causing more than 480,000 deaths per year in the US and contributing to smokers dying ten years earlier than nonsmokers. Additionally, nicotine, an ingredient naturally in
Tobacco and smoking were not always used how they are today. Back around 600 to 900 A.D. many cultures grew tobacco and Native Americans would smoke and use it within religious ceremonies and for medical uses (History of Tobacco). Toward the middle of the 1800’s American’s started to smoke tobacco occasionally either from a pipe or a cigarette; not like people smoke today was very occasional stated in the History of Tobacco. The first main stream production of cigarettes began in 1865 but were made for soldiers in the Civil War. In 1881 that is when business picked up and everyone started smoking more frequently due to the mass amount of cigarettes being produced and the access to them (History of Tobacco).
A study shows that Canadian labels led to a 2.9 to 4.7 percentage point drop in smoking rates- which would mean 5.3 to 8.6 million fewer smokers in the United States if the same results were obtained (González, 2013). The rate of smoking in America has been cut roughly in half, to about 19 percent, from 42 percent in 1965. But smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death, killing 443,000 Americans a year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Wilson, 2011). There are many people who try cigarettes for the first time each day. In fact, each day, the government says, an estimated 4,000 youths try their first cigarette, and 1,000 a day become regular smokers (Wilson,2011).
Intro- Hello everyone, if you don’t already know, my name is Greg Mrowka, and I’m here to talk to you about the silent killer, smoking. My goal in telling you about smoking is that you yourselves will not one day become a casualty in the war on smoking. I myself am already in the numbers as one of the addicted, potential casualties. From experience, and through witnessing many deaths on behalf of smoking I believe I am well qualified on telling you about this subject.
Smoking is a simple process of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning tobacco, but it has deadly consequences. According to the American Cancer Society, smoking is the most preventable cause of death in America today (Encarta, 2002). Until the 1940?s, smoking was considered harmless. It was at this time that epidemiologists noticed a dramatic increase in the cases of lung cancer. A study was then conducted between smokers and nonsmokers to determine if cigarettes were the cause of this increase. This study, conducted by the American Cancer Society, found increased mortality among smokers. Yet it was not until 1964 that the Surgeon General put out a report acknowledging the danger of cigarettes. The first action to curb smoking was the mandate of a warning on cigarette packages by the Federal Trade Commission (Encarta, 2002). In 1971, all cigarette advertising was banned from radio and television, and cities and states passed laws requiring nonsmoking sections in public places and workplaces (Encarta, 2002). Now in some cities smoking is being completely banned from public places and workplaces and various people are striving for more of these laws against smoking.