Influence of Tobacco Use
Tobacco use contributes to 440,000 deaths annually in the U.S. and is accompanied by $75 billion in medical expenses. It is the most preventable cause of disease and death in the country. 3,900 U.S. children ages 12–17 years old smoke their first cigarette every day. The Centers for Disease Control warns that “of all addictive behaviors, cigarette smoking is the one most likely to become established during adolescence”.
The effects of cigarettes on young people include respiratory and non-respiratory problems, nicotine addiction, and their potential as a “gateway drug.” Long term effects of tobacco use range from minor, treatable complications to death. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) agrees with the evidence: the most consistent finding, over decades of research, is the strong association between tobacco use and cancers of many sites. Specific to lung cancer, NCI reports that “rates in the United States have mirrored smoking patterns, with increases in smoking being followed by dramatic increases in lung cancer death rates and, more recently, decreases in smoking followed by decreased in lung cancer death rates in men”. Following current smoking trends, as many as 6.4 million of today’s youth could suffer smoking-related premature deaths.
Read more about this topic: Road Of Life: Cancer Prevention For Kids
Famous quotes containing the words influence of, influence and/or tobacco:
“Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies’ resources, and minimized their own.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“They tell us that women can bring better things to pass by indirect influence. Try to persuade any man that he will have more weight, more influence, if he gives up his vote, allies himself with no party and relies on influence to achieve his ends! By all means let us use to the utmost whatever influence we have, but in all justice do not ask us to be content with this.”
—Mrs. William C. Gannett, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 5, ch. 8, by Ida Husted Harper (1922)
“There is held to be no surer test of civilisation than the increase per head of the consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Yet alcohol and tobacco are recognisable poisons, so that their consumption has only to be carried far enough to destroy civilisation altogether.”
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939)