Discouraging Smoking Tobacco Products

Discouraging Smoking
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Discouraging Smoking
Tobacco products are responsible for 6% of the global deaths annually, more than any single disease and it is projected that by the year 2020, the mortality rates will rise to between 11% in the developing world and 18% in the developed world. It is estimated that the world has about 1.3 billion smokers and smoking is the major contributor towards chronic diseases such as cancer. In the US, smoking contributes to almost 20% of all deaths annually (Parrinello et al., 2015). Statistics also show that more than 17% of people with mobility impairments in the United States are smokers (Borelli, Busch & Dunsiger, 2014). The impact of tobacco on global diseases is huge since it is the probable cause of more than 25 diseases. About a third of the world population aged over 15 years smoke, with male smokers in developing countries numbering to over 700 million. 40 % of adults in the Asian countries of China, Indonesia and India as well as a large population in South America are current smokers. Many users of tobacco products smoke cigarettes while others use cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, shisha and others. These statistics paint a grim picture on the impact of smoking on human life and calls for adequate measures to combat the use of tobacco. The world’s poorest countries record the highest consumption of tobacco products. The fact that smoking rate is higher in poor people especially in developing countries with an estimate of 80% of all smokers draws much attention to the whole issue of smoking.
There is much pressure from governments and other social agencies on tobacco and liquor organizations to reduce smoking and drinking among their customers. Governments have implemented certain strategies such as “DE marketing strategies” as an attempt of encouraging smokers to quit smoking. Moore (2005) defines DE marketing as “that aspect of marketing that deals with discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis.” Some of these strategies emphasise on creation of social norms whose aim is to educate people that smoking is harmful to one’s health and is an irresponsible and undesirable behaviour in the society. Other strategies are the current campaigns by various governments increasing taxes on tobacco and its related products to discourage its consumption (Cebula, Foley & Houmes, 2014).
Studies from developing economies demonstrate a higher prevalence of smoking among young adults. One study from India found out that 45% of students in Karnataka have used tobacco and its related products. Another study revealed that 20% of young adults smoke. These studies demonstrate that age is a contributing factor to with students being the most likely group to adopt the smoking behavior. There are other factors such as social and educational environments and the degree of social tolerance in students that contribute to smoking.
This paper attempts to propose intervention strategies that are required to discourage smokers, who are more at risk of tobacco related diseases and from who the youths copy the behaviour. These strategies aim to prevent the use of tobacco and its related products among the adolescent population with a view of completely eliminating its use and empower healthcare professionals to provide effective advice and support to those individuals who are exposed to the use of tobacco products and increase health promotion activities. Therefore, this paper aims at motivating students and young adults to reduce the consumption of tobacco and its related products and recommend some of the strategies that can discourage them from this dangerous behaviour. Additionally, the paper seeks to identify some of that factors that contribute to smoking among young people and adults.
Objectives
The aim of this paper is to reduce the use tobacco products among the adult population and alleviate adolescent uptake of the habit. The ultimate goal is to reduce the associated risks to a substantially low consumption rate. It also aims to attain low mortality rates as a result of quitting smoking among the elderly smokers and reduce the associated health risks (Shahab et al,. 2015). Health care practitioners should be mobilized to spearhead the awareness and sensitization campaigns aimed at stopping tobacco use among their patients. Moreover, the paper aims at formulating suitable strategies that can discourage smoking among young people and adults in general.
Health risks
Many medical problems especially cardiovascular, cerebral vascular and respiratory diseases have a common causal factor being ingestion of tobacco related products which exposes users to tobacco related diseases which are the leading cause of preventable mortality (Shahab et al,. 2015). Non-smokers who are exposed to second-hand smoke kills almost 50,000 people annually in the U.S alone as measures such as ventilation cannot eliminate the risk of exposure to the Class A carcinogen (Mons et al., 2015).
Smoking of tobacco and its related products harms every organ in the body and causes many deaths. Moreover, it reduces the health conditions of the smokers. In the United States, smoking is the leading preventable cause of death resulting in more than 450,000 deaths annually as compared to other causes such as motor vehicle injuries, Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and firearm related deaths combined. Smoking is believed to have caused more deaths in the United States than the number of deaths as a result of wars in the US. Smoking is also believed to contribute to more than 90% of lung cancer deaths (US Department of Health). Additionally, more women are believed to be dying from lung cancer annually than from breast cancer which is another chronic disease. Moreover, Smoking results in more than 80% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths.
Smokers are at a higher risk of developing heart disease, lung cancer and stroke as compared to non-smokers. Statistics demonstrate that smoking increases the risk of developing the above mentioned diseases by 2 to 4 times for heart disease and stroke and more than 24 times for lung cancer in men and 25 times in women (US Department of Health & CDC). These conditions diminish the overall health conditions of smokers leading to increase absenteeism from work and school as well as an increase in medical costs.
As stated earlier, smoking harms almost every organ in the body and affects the general health condition of a person. Smoking in women lowers their fertility rates and may affect the health of baby before and after birth (US Department of Health & CDC). Therefore, smoking in women increases their risks for early delivery, low birth weight, ectopic pregnancies and others. Moreover, smoking affects the fertility rates in men as well and can cause birth defects and miscarriages. Also smoking affects bone health. Evidence shows that bones in smoking women who are past childbearing years are weaker as compared t...