Don't Regret a Cigarette

 Don't Regret a Cigarette

Adair counties history with tobacco use has shown that it is essential to start making drastic changes in how we promote tobacco use.  I will admit that Cigarettes have made a strong transition in a healthy direction since they became popular in the 1950’s.  They were once seen as “cool” and “not dangerous” and are now perceived as “toxic” and “harmful”; yet we still have an average of twenty percent of our high school students smoking cigarettes.  Many of these individuals began smoking by the age of thirteen. 

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey for 2011 concluded results of:

 The 2011 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicates that among U.S. high school students:

Cigarette Use

•                      45% ever tried cigarette smoking. (1)

•                      18% smoked cigarettes on at least 1 day during the 30 days before the survey.

•                      6% smoked cigarettes on 20 or more days during the 30 days before the survey.

•                      5% smoked cigarettes on school property during the 30 days before the survey.

•                      50% did not try to quit smoking cigarettes.

Teenagers are the age group we need to begin targeting to convince not to smoke or in some cases, to quit smoking.  The age of trying a cigarette has become younger over the years and if we as health educators do not begin targeting younger teenagers than this problem will become worse. Another issue that Adair county, and the United States as a whole needs to address is selling cigarettes to minors.  The table below is results of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System of 2009.  The data is the percent of High school students who claimed they bought their cigarettes at a store or gas station on a regular basis. 

 TABLE 32. Percentage of high school students who usually obtained their own cigarettes by buying them in a store or gas station.  It is organized by sex, race/ethnicity, and grade — United States, Youth Risk Behavior Survey

Category	Females %	Males %
White¶	8.8	19.0
Black¶	—**	24.8
Hispanic	11.5	15.0
9	3.5	11.0
10	9.8	16.8
11	12.0	18.8
12	14.9	32.7
Total	9.6	18.3

We know the potential harmful results that come from smoking cigarettes which are: lung, esophagus, larynx, and oral cancer.  Not only does smoking have long term effects but tobacco use increases the risk of sudden death.  This effect would result from a condition where the heart is unable to beat properly and does not supply enough blood to the organs of the body.  It is estimated that tobacco use kills one out of five individuals every year in America.  Not only this but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claim, “tobacco use is the highest cause of death that could be prevented in the United States”.   The CDC also researched and estimated that, “adults who smoke decrease their life expectancy by fourteen years as compared to a nonsmoker”.   If we focus on targeting young teenagers with the education of how harmful cigarettes are, then there is a bigger chance these individuals will be more prone to saying “no” to tobacco in the future. 

We as Adair county citizens owe it to our county to start improving our health of Adair County.  These young teenagers will be the future of Adair County.  If we begin implementing posters, advertisements, news castings that target younger individuals and show them how smoking is not only toxic, but not “cool”, then we will be more effective in preventing them from smoking in the future.

Citations:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, YRBSS analysis. (2011). youth risk behavior surveillance system. Retrieved from Centers for disease Control and Prevention website: http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm

Preferred family healthcare "we are a good family to know". (2012). Retrieved from http://pfh.org/

Smoking and tobacco use. In (2012). National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Atlanta, Georgia: USA.Gov. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/