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:
“Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern—can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Just what is the civil law? What neither influence can affect, nor power break, nor money corrupt: were it to be suppressed or even merely ignored or inadequately observed, no one would feel safe about anything, whether his own possessions, the inheritance he expects from his father, or the bequests he makes to his children.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“You and I both know that Twinkies don’t kill people.... The difference between cigarettes and Twinkies ... is death. The tobacco industry should know: When it comes to Twinkies, I’d rather fight than quit.”
—Henry Waxman (b. 1939)