Cigarette Smoking
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Introduction.
Cigarette smoking has continued to be a worldwide activity with the number of smokers in many countries standing at substantial figures. In the United States (U.S.), millions of adults still use cigarettes. In 1998, the country’s overall smoking prevalence rate stood at about 24.1%, corresponding to nearly 47.2 million persons, whereas worldwide, there were about 1.1 billion smokers (Hetch, 2002). Fortunately, according to the 2015 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), there has been a reduction in the number of adult cigarette smokers in the country. There was a decline in the percentage of cigarette smokers aged above 18 years from 20.9% in 2005 to 15.1% in 2015, a trend that has also been witnessed globally (Onor et al., (2017). Regardless, however, cigarette consumption has continued to remain both social and economical horror. Nonetheless, despite the numerous health and economic negatives associated with cigarette smoking, there has been little if not any attempt to ban cigarette smoking and tobacco use in the U.S. and in many countries around the globe. Nevertheless, it is in the best opinion that cigarette smoking should be banned or, at the very least, stringently controlled, given the substantial social burdens that come with it.
First, cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and other cancers. Carcinogens in cigarette smoke are the leading cause of genetic alterations known to exists in human lung cancer (Hetch, 2002). Furthermore, lung cancer, the most prevalent cancer globally, is also the leading death-causing cancer in the U.S. with an excess of 150, 000 fatalities having been projected in the country in 2002. Overall, cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and diseases in the country with the 2010 U.S. Surgeon General’s report approximating that close to 443, 000 die annually from cigarette smoking-related illnesses (CDC, 2012). The annual premature deaths associated with cigarette use in the U.S. are 400 000 people representative of close to one in every five deaths in the country (Onor et al., 2017). An estimated 40 percent of cigarette smokers are prone to premature death if they don’t quit. The fatality numbers from chronic conditions associated with cigarette smoking or exposure as a secondary smoker, smoking-related fires within residentials, and complications from pregnancy smoking are alarming. The latter has accounted for more than 20 million deaths in the U.S. between 1965 and 2014. Worldwide, cigarette smoking is associated with 30% of all cancer deaths in developed nations. Besides lung cancer, tobacco smoking is also significantly associated with oropharyngeal, mouth, hypopharyngeal, laryngeal, pancreatic, renal pelvis, and many other types of cancer (Hetch, 2002). According to Chen et al. (2004), the best effective method to minimize lung cancer is through prevention, and the most crucial way to achieve the latter is to deter persons from smoking in the first place.
Secondly, cigarette smoking is causally related to cardiovascular complications. According to Onor et al. (2017), the main items inherent with smoking-induced cardiovascular diseases are endothelial dysfunction, inflammations, altered lipid metabolism, the decreased supply of myocardial blood and oxygen, among other complications. Both exposures as a second-hand smoker and primary cigarette smoker are also the major causes of cardiovascular disease-related fatalities, with about 194,000 deaths yearly related to cigarette smoking. Besides, cigarette or tobacco smoking is linked with the establishment of chronic pulmonary ailments. Cigarette use, in fact, is the principal source of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in America. Some possible items inherent with the latter are mucus gland hyperplasia, lung cilia loss, and general inflammation that leads to dysfunction of the lungs and injuries. Moreover, according to Polosa et al. (2004), cigarette smoking can also aggravate asthma in adults by enhancing such complications like airway inflammation, impairing mucus clearance, and increasing bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Cigarette smoking also exacerbates the development risk of tuberculosis (T.B.), hence TB-related deaths.
Thirdly, cigarette smoking poses a significant threat to reproductive health and, by extension, human population continuity. Smoking cigarettes during pregnancy causes numerous reproductive anomalies. The carbon monoxide contained in cigarettes is a hemoglobin binder which deprives the fetus of oxygen. In effect, this results in low birth weight (Onor et al., 2017). An epidemiologic study by Ananth et al. (1996) revealed maternal cigarette smoking as a possible risk factor in placental abruption. According to the study, there is a positive correlation between smoking during pregnancies and the placenta’s abruption, albeit not with another uterine bleeding. Besides, as Soneji and Beltran (2019) note, other constituents of tobacco contained in cigarettes such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and aromatic hydrocarbons result in sudden fetal deaths, reduces fertility in women, and leads to premature births. Contemporary studies have also revealed that pregnancy smoking is causally related to ectopic pregnancies and orofacial cleft. Moreover, according to Kovac et al. (2015), cigarette smoking has been associated with erectile dysfunction in recent years. The central physiologic apparatus believed to be affected by the nitric oxide transduction pathway.
Forth, according to Onor et al. (2017), cigarette smoking has several other physiological and clinical and consequences. It affects the functionality of the immune system, often leading to rheumatoid arthritis. Cigarette smoking also increases the risk of developing peptic ulcers by influencing the gastrointestinal tract. Additionally, smoking lowers bone mineral density in postmenopausal smokers, in effect aggravating the vulnerability to the bone and hip fractures. Recently, it has been proven that smoking puts cigarette users at a 30 to 40% higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes mellitus. Smokers with diabetes are also more vulnerable to developing clinical complications such as nephropathy, peripheral neuropathy, or even worse, being amputated. Even worse, smoking has been linked to psychological disorders. According to Daniel et al. (2004), a study on Canadian Aboriginal community revealed that depression and other negative psychological factors were inherent with cigarette smokers, especially the overweight individuals in rural First Nation. There have also been mild associations between cigarette smoking and increased weight problems with studies showing that tobacco use is closely associated with appetite growth as a result of biomechanical triggers of nicotine.
Moreover, cigarette smoking has been evaluated to have substantial economic burdens across many economies, both low and middle income and developed ones. According to Goodchild et al. (2018), healthcare expenditures resulting from smoking-related diseases reached a staggering purchasing power parity (PPP) 427 billion Euros in 2012, corresponding to 5.7 percent of worldwide health expenditure. Taken holistically on the basis of health expenditure and productivity losses, cigarette smoking cost totaled 1436 billion U.S. dollars in the same year, a figure equivalent to 1.8% of the global annual gross domestic product (GDP). Developing countries accounted for about 40% of this cost highlighting the significant burden suffered by such nations form smoking.
In the U.S. alone, cigarette smoking accounts for about 289 billion dollars in productivity losses and direct healthcare expenditure annually (Jamal et al., 2014). According to Max et al. (2004), in California alone, the total cost of cigarette smoking in 1999 was 15.9 billion Us dollars. The direct costs alone were $8.6 billion, whereas indirect costs due to illnesses leading to lost productivity were $ 1.5 billion, and indirect costs inherent with premature deaths were $5.7 billion. Besides, cigarette smoking has been associated with substantial economic losses that result from wildfires caused by cigarettes.
There has not been a lot of lobby or support for cigarette smoking. Instead, globally many nations are continually developing programs to help reduce smoking habits or control exposure to cigarettes as second-hand smokers. Lobbies to regulate or limit cigarette use began in the 1970s and have resulted in banning public smoking in such areas as parks and beaches (Bayer and Bachynski, 2013). A review of local jurisdiction responses shows that between 1993 and 2011, there have a ban in 843 parks and 150 beaches across the U.S.
The three primary justification for such moves is that the long-term risk of infants witnessing people smoke, the risk of smoking to a non-smoker or second-hand users, and pollution that results from smoked cigarettes remains. Similarly, there have been numerous efforts to discourage persons, especially the younger generations, to divulge from smoking. According to Thomas et al. (2013), efforts to help young persons avoid indulging in cigarette smoking in the first place is a public health goal that has been endorsed in many localities. School-based interventions against student smoking have been in place for more than 40years, and there have been relentless efforts to better the programs to help control this social horror.
Conclusion
Tobacco usage of cigarette smoking has been widespread in many countries across the globe and in America in particular. Cigarette use, in particular, has been shown to be most prevalent among males in society, albeit women are also substantially smokers in many societies. Although statistics indicate a general decline in cigarette smokers in many nations globally, cigarette sue still remains a substantial activity. However, the most alarming item in smoking is the health and economic burdens that come with it. As seen from several accounts, cigarette smoking bears with it a myriad of health negatives and, even worse, is a significant contributor to deaths across the globe. Besides, cigarette or tobacco use has had enormous economic and financial burdens in many counties around the world. Even more unfortunate, this burden has been heavier in low-income nations. Worldwide and in the U.S., there has been a particular lobby group, neither conservatives nor liberals that have openly come out in support of cigarette smoking. Instead, it has been continuously witnessed that most efforts are geared towards regulating and even preventing cigarette use. From this, it is concludable that tobacco use; in particular, cigarette smoking has remained a social misgiving across many societies in the world. Therefore, these actions are a springboard of a strong conviction that cigarette smoking should be heavily regulated or in the best interest should be entirely banned, given that it has not a single benefit.