The more this practice is positive, the more acceptable it become, the more people start smoking and encourage other to consume. Smoking is spread by "social contagion." According to the Center Of Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of people aged between 18 and 34 smoke. 37% of adolescent smokers aged between 11 and 15 years feel like they cannot do without cigarettes. And 54% of young people aged 20 to 24 smoke, while the proportion of smokers aged 25 to 75 years is 29%.
Today, cigarette smoking is really common in younger age groups. Teenagers have this idea that smoking will make you cool and help you fit in. In actuality, that is not the case. Smoking at a young age is the worst thing you can do to your body and is a gateway to other drugs and bad habits. “ 90% of smokers began before the age of 19…About 30% of teen smokers will continue smoking and die early from a smoking-related disease…According to the Surgeon General, teenagers who smoke are 3 times more likely to use alcohol 8 times more likely to smoke marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine.” (2).
Since those peak years, there has been a gradual decline in smoking rates, which continued in 1999. (Johnston). Rates of daily smoking are also down from their peak levels (in 1996 for eighth- and 10th-graders and in 1997 for 12th-graders) but did not show much improvement in 1999 specifically, according to Johnston. "Because young people tend to carry the smoking habits they develop in adolescence into adulthood, the substantial and continuing increases in teen smoking bode ill for the eventual longevity and health of this generation of American young people," concludes Johnston. "Hundreds of thousands of children from each graduating class are likely to suffer appalling diseases, and to die prematurely, as a result of the smoking habits they are developing in childhood and adolescence."
Smoking in America In the United States today, more than forty six million Americans are addicted to cigarettes. More people have died due to cigarette smoking than from narcotic drugs, World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War combined (Bailey 1). The annual death toll for cigarette smoking is more than four-hundred thousand Americans a year, and is the number-one preventable cause of death in the United States. If Americans are aware of the lethal effects of smoking, why is it still so popular? Guy Smith, a Phillip Morris Tobacco Company executive, claims that their research shows that advertising is the top reason people start smoking (Bailey 34).
According to the CDC, more than half of the calls to poison centers due to e-cigarettes involved children under the age of 5 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). “E-cigarettes are tempted and even marketed to children. They deliver aerosolized nicotine and kid-friendly additives; such as chocolate mint, pina colada, atomic fireball candy, and even gummy bears “ (Fillon). These types of flavorings and marketing specific to kids have been banned in tobacco products because of its appeal to children, therefore shouldn’t it be banned in all nicotine products? Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco says, “There is no question that e-cigarettes are the way that some kids initiate nicotine addiction”.
Caffeine Most American’s need a little boost to start their day. Is a cup of coffee or an energy drink the better choice for your daily source of caffeine? Which of the two is healthier? It is a proven fact that coffee contains more caffeine then most energy drinks. For a lot of people drinking coffee has to be on their daily to-do list.
(Bailey 54) Children regularly take up smoking despite health campaigns about the dangers of smoking. Children see smoking on pop-ups on computers, in advertising, and in public places. (Connolly, 10) As the adolescent brain seeks to specialize in rewarding activities, addictive substances can crowd out other activities, shrinking the repertoire being learned. “When you’re addicted, all your motivation gets funneled into seeking or taking the drug,” said R. Andrew Chambers, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. (McGough) This quote illustrates how easily adolescents are influence by others.
Research was also expanded to passive smoking and its impact on traits of human health. This novel evidence clearly shows that passive smoking may have a substantive role in the development of chronic diseases [11]. Despite the recent measures adopted in different countries to eliminate indoor smoking, 700 million children globally are still exposed to environmental tobacco smoke [12] and WHO established that about half of the world’s children is threatened by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Many studies are conducted not only to investigate association of passive smoking by children due to parental smoking with chronic diseases incidences and prevalence in children but also effect of public health methods as curative approach. In order to gain more information about this issue two studies were reviewed thoroughly.
American’s average daily intake of caffeine is two hundred and eighty milligrams (“Caffeine” Alcohol and Tobacco). Many people consume much more than that; they are addicted. Caffeine is a drug common in our society that brings negatively affects the the consumer both mentally and physically and the true facts of the substance’s affects stay concealed such as how it affects the heart, brain, and other organs of adults, children, and animals alike. BACKGROUND A white powder film when dehydrated, Caffeine is a naturally occurring stimulant found in coffee, tea, cacao, and kola (“Caffeine” Alcohol and Tobacco). American’s cannot deny their addiction to caffeine.
The Center for the Advancement of Health published the results of a study on teenager smokers: Almost two-thirds of the smokers had one or more symptoms of nicotine dependence, and of these, almost two-thirds said that they had their first symptom before they began smoking every day or that the symptoms had made them start smoking every day. Feeling addicted was the most common initial symptom, while cravings, irritability, nervousness, and anxiety when unable to smoke were the most commonly reported symptoms overall. (1) When a person continues to use something compulsively knowing the negative effects on his or her body, the person is considered psychologically addicted. The physiological effect of nicotine turns on the reward pathway of the brain. The continued use of tobacco products as the result of nicotine addiction has many short and long term effects on a person’s body.