tobacco problem-solution essay

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Julie Tran
Mr. Carr
English 1711 Sec. 40
19 December 2014
Tobacco smoking Kills
Every inhale of a cigarette is another tick closer to a time bomb. People who choose to ignore the facts and the serious consequences smoking can do, dies a tragic death. Tobacco smoking and tobacco companies have become the biggest and most neglected problem in
America. Especially the problem with people starting their addiction to tobacco at a young age.
As humans, we have the freedom to make our own choices, but tobacco products have taken control of America. Unless people stay locked in their smoke­free homes forever, it’s impossible to avoid the deadly chemicals that cigarettes emit in the air. Since teen smoking is majorly increasing, the age requirement should be raised to 21 not only in America, but in every country.
Or lawmakers should increase the prices for cigarettes and other tobacco products to make it less obtainable for people on a budget, which is almost everyone nowadays. Also, the government could ban public smoking everywhere to protect people’s health and rights. Alternatively, teachers can constructively educate students about the dangers of tobacco smoking and parents can be good role models for their children. Even though all of the solutions are effective, the best solution would be to ban all and any kind of advertisements promoting tobacco smoking.
Tobacco smoking only has negative effect. Tobacco kills, increases poverty, damages the environment and many more. Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. It is

 Tran 2 estimated to kill 6 million people every year, that’s a person dying every 1 to 6 seconds right now(Shah). It is something that the world can prevent that would significantly bring down the death rate caused by tobacco. The smoking trend is quickly rising and if it continues, there will be over 8 million deaths a year by 2030 (Shah). A current smoker will lose up to 20 years of their life expectancy compared to a non­smoker (Shah). Tobacco companies are paying billions of dollars on advertisements solely targeting the youth to buy their products (Shah). Because young people are so used to being exposed around such conditions, there is a huge chance that they will become smokers(Shah). Second hand smoke is also a very big issue, it causes 600,000 premature deaths every year. With the 4,000 chemicals present in tobacco smoking, at least 250 are proven to be harmful and eventually lethal (Shah). There are also 50 known chemicals that causes cancer. House fires and smoking are closely related after killing an average of 300,000 in
2000 causing $27 billion in damage costs (Shah). It’s absolutely mind blowing how such a simple thing can cause such a huge imprint on the world. There is no purpose to tobacco products except for pleasure, other than that it’s useless. Tobacco has definitely become a major problem that needs to be fixed if there are plans on a better future, for an existing future generation. A good solution would require all states in the U.S. to raise the age requirement for purchasing tobacco products. This strategy is mainly to reduce tobacco smoking in young people. All states require the age of 18 to be able to purchase cigarettes, but Alaska, Alabama,
Utah and New Jersey which requires the age of 19 to be able to purchase cigarettes (Schmidt).
Neither of those ages are high enough because people’s brains don’t fully develop until they are

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21. Nearly all smokers start as kids or young adults, and again, these age groups are heavily targeted by the tobacco companies. Increasing the purchasing age to 21 will help to prevent young people from ever starting to smoke and to reduce the deaths, disease and health care costs caused by tobacco smoking. It will also give young people time to mature and make better decisions when they reach 21. “If a man has never smoked by age 18, the odds are three­to­one he never will. By age 21, the odds are twenty­to­one,” says RJ Reynolds, September 10, 1982
(Schmidt). Increasing the purchasing age will be complementary to other solutions to reduce tobacco use, including higher tobacco prices, stricter smoke­free laws that apply to all public places, and well­funded education and public awareness programs. As a country we are definitely making progress in raising the purchasing age for tobacco products, but there’s obviously way more room to improve.
On the other hand, by raising the age requirements, young people will feel more of a need to smoke earlier, to be "badass" and "rebellious", and overuse tobacco products, as they do now with alcohol. Reaching the age of 18 means adulthood and an adult can choose for themselves whether they want to do such a thing. Taking away this ability will only make people want to do it more at a young age. By raising the age to 21, it’s like taking restricting basic freedoms from young adults. If the definition of adult should be changed to 21 then the definition of should change for joining the army as well. Critics are saying that if people are allowed to buy guns at
18 and raising the age requirements to 21 should not something to worry about. Making restrictions for an 18 year old adult would be like treating them like babies and assuming they cannot make their own decisions. If people can vote, buy a gun, enlist in the military, and be

 Tran 4 tried as an adult, it would only make sense for them to be allowed to decide for themselves if they want a cigarette. So raising the purchasing age would force the states to raise other age requirements to 21, they may even have to raise the full adult age to 21 instead of 18. Doing this may also result in other problem unrelated to smoking tobacco.
A better solution would be lawmakers increasing the prices of tobacco. By doing this, it makes tobacco much less obtainable to adults and mainly teens that are working minimum wage.
Over 100 studies, including a growing number from low­income and middle­income countries, clearly demonstrates that increasing tobacco prices is a powerful tool for reducing tobacco use
(Bettcher). There 's already research to prove that increasing prices leading to decreased cigarette consumption . A recent Congressional Budget Office study concluded that a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices leads to a 5 to 15 percent decrease in teen smoking rates, and a 3 to 7 percent decrease among all adults (Smoking & Tobacco use). That’s already a huge improvement and definitely a significant decrease in people smoking. According to the estimates WHO made, if all countries increased tobacco taxes by 50% per pack it would result in 49 million fewer smokers and 11 million lives saved (Bettcher). Governments around the world would earn an extra $101 billion that they could use towards health and social programs (Bettcher). Arguments against increasing tobacco prices who state that higher taxes will have harmful economic effects are falsely assumed. Increasing prices of tobacco would be an effective strategy to increase public health in America, but the only true price of tobacco is paid by people’s lives.
However, the big problem with raising tobacco prices is that people who are far in too deep will still be tempted to buy cigarettes. Addiction is not something to joke about, depending

 Tran 5 on the person’s financial situation, it could gradually eat away their life savings and everything else they might have saved up. This would eventually cause the statistics of homeless people in
America to skyrocket. Getting addicted to tobacco is like getting addicted to any other hard drugs out there. There is no way to predict if people would respond accordingly to the price increases because determination cannot be measured. There could also be a potential problem resulting in smuggling or stealing tobacco. Again, addiction can completely take over someone’s mental state of mind and cause them to resort to their last solution. Smuggling tobacco from another country would probably be cheaper than the raised prices. America already has a major problem with drug cartels and smuggling drugs across the border, Tobacco eventually could be added to that list. If raising the price of tobacco solves the problem of cigarette consumption, it could shut down multiple monster tobacco companies adding significant numbers to the already sky­high unemployment rate in America. Following unemployment would be the increase of homeless people in America.
The government completely banning public smoking from anywhere is a step up from raising tobacco prices. Secondhand smoking is as bad at actually smoking a cigarette. People who don’t choose to smoke are almost being forced into smoking because of breathing in secondhand smoke in public. It’s especially inconvenient for people with chronic asthma and bronchitis conditions (Teen Ink). The government needs to rethink what the definition of freedom means again, because people being forced to breathe in secondhand smoke out of their own will is not it. There is not one human being on this earth that can truly say they have never encountered tobacco smoke since tobacco smoking is still very popular in this generation. It’s

 Tran 6 impossible to completely avoid tobacco smoke. Banning it completely would encourage smokers to smoke less or give up. If smoking was banned in public places, it would no longer be a social activity. If smoking was a less social activity, fewer people would start smoking. In many countries, governments pay all or some of the cost of treating smoking­related diseases (Teen
Ink). This means that governments should have a right to discourage smoking. Bars and clubs that allow smoking should be banned or shut down because, yes, its important to generate jobs, but people’s health should always come first. Law Enforcers are not being strict enough about smoke­free zones like around schools. Secondhand smoking can cause much more damages to young children than to adults and can shorten their lifespan by ten years (Schmidt). Enforcing more constructive and organized laws about the prohibitions of tobacco smoking will cause smokers to realize how serious this problem is getting each day and encourages them to quit.
Consequently, if public smoking is banned, people would be breaking the law almost every hour. People know that there are not enough law enforcers to be babysitting all of them
24/7. The crime rate in America would only increase at this point and eventually people will grow tired of this ban. If the consequences are not big enough to cause an impact on people who were caught smoking in public places, people would not obey the law. Almost everyone in
America smokes tobacco and the government would not have enough space for that amount of people. Half of America’s law enforcers are tobacco smokers and are most likely going to smoke publicly because they assume they have more power over people under the law. Law enforcers who are smokers will be more lenient on people who are caught smoking in public; this could be another potential problem because people would discontinue to oblige. The ban of tobacco in

 Tran 7 public places would fail miserably. If people would not be allowed to smoke in public, they would have to resort to smoking inside their homes. Secondhand smoke is very dangerous to kids, to anyone and being trapped in a closed area with the presence of it could cause cancer and other deadly diseases. Another neglected problem would be house fires. Smoking is the leading cause to fires and about 7,600 fires related to smoking in homes each year (USFA). The death rate every thousand fires is more than seven times greater than in fires not related to smoking.
67% of smoking­related fires happens when embers from cigarettes are not put out properly
(USFA) . Tobacco might as well become an illegal drug because smoking outside is the healthiest way.
Instead of eliminating public smoking, teachers can give public education and more awareness about tobacco smoking. Schools are in a powerful position to play a major role in reducing the serious problems of smoking and other tobacco use by kids. While firmly warning students about the dangers of tobacco smoking, schools should prohibit teachers and visitors from smoking completely to send a much more constructive tobacco­free message. Schools are also usually the place where students are influenced by other students to make bad decisions, so educating them about the dangers of tobacco is a must. Usually teachers will only dabble a little bit about the dangers of tobacco, but it’s not stressed enough in schools. In 2012, five percent of eighth grade students reported having had their first cigarette by the end of fifth grade (ages 10 to
11) (Schmidt). If these trends continue, 5.6 million students under the age of 18 who are alive today will ultimately die from smoking tobacco diseases (Schmidt). Schools should fund for programs that help prevent teen smoking and also allow survivors from tobacco smoking to help

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educate the students. Showing real life examples and situations of the horrible effects tobacco can to people will result in students full attention. This will only decrease the number of smokers in the future.
On the negative side, teachers who are already long time smokers will be forced to quit and that would not be easy. It may result in teachers resigning because they would choose tobacco over their job. Teachers who refuse to quit smoking will defeat the whole purpose of being a role model to their students. There is no way to keep surveillance on every teacher to insure they are not smoking tobacco behind the school’s back. If only schools planned ahead when hiring teachers, this whole situation would be a lot easier to handle. Most schools have budgets and funding for programs and survivors could put them at a dangerous stretch. Teaching students about the dangers of tobacco every now and then would suffice, but stressing it way more than it should be is unnecessary. This may jeopardize the time students could have learning other more relevant subjects in school. The education and awareness of tobacco smoking should not be neglected, but should not be the center the school revolves around.
The only other people better looked up to than teachers are be parents. Parents should set a good example, be a good role model for their children. A way to end tobacco smoking is to target the problem at the starting point. Children look up to parents no matter what the situation is, people say children almost always grow up acting exactly like their parents. What parents say, how they act, and the values they communicate through their words and deeds has an enormous influence on children. Whatever the situation is, parents should not smoke especially not with their children present. Younger children will mirror anything their parents do because they think

 Tran 9 that if their parents are doing it, it’s acceptable for them to do it. By having a smoke­free environment, young children and teens won’t be influenced to smoke. The more involved the parents are in their children’s lives, they will less likely do anything out of proportion. Another thing parents can do is to have ongoing conversations throughout their high school years about how tobacco kills and is very dangerous. Educate them on the death factors so they know not to go anywhere near tobacco products. Also educate them about the ads on television and how its all just a big lie. If parents do everything they can to avoid tobacco use of any kind, the future generation will be smoke­free and the deaths from tobacco smoking will significantly decrease by hundreds.
With busy families, it will be very time consuming for parents to attempt to prevent their children from being a smoker. They will have to commit to be being a full time parent and that might mean quitting their job and any other activities they do throughout their daily schedule.
Parents would have to be involved in everything their child does no matter what their child’s business may be. If parents were to work half the day, there is no way to keep track of their kids.
So it results in parents having to be fully involved in the child’s life 24/7. Depending on the family’s financial situation, it could seriously jeopardize their living situation. If the parents are already smokers it could be very difficult to quit, a lot of time and hard work would be key. It’s also takes a lot of time and perseverance to continue to be a good role model because everyone is only human and no one is perfect. There will most likely be a slip­up every now and then.
Because parents can’t always be there 24/7, Television, media sites, and radio stations should ban all cigarette and tobacco smoking advertisements. These advertisements are made by

 Tran 10 highly professional people who know how to make almost anything look glamorous when in reality it’s the complete opposite. Because of how intriguing they make smoking cigarettes look on national television, it makes smokers and non­smokers want to go to the store and buy a pack.
If this makes adults crave smoking, the urge is much stronger for younger people. Tobacco advertisements are secretly targeting younger people because older people will eventually die and result in decrease of sales. The last thing that should happen is for a 10 year old or even younger aged person to think that smoking tobacco is acceptable for their age. Tobacco companies are also trying to be sly about advertising through famous people and popular hipsters on media sites with countless number of followers. Paying them big bucks to pose for the cameras with a cigarette in their mouths. This kind of advertising should also be specified in the laws because it’s been thought out so well, that almost everyone is biting the bait. It’s causing people to be completely blind­sided by the fact that the people posing in those pictures probably don’t even smoke. Advertisements are probably the biggest problem for the future generation.
They use very smart tactics to lure people into buying their tobacco products, if they were banned entirely, tobacco smokers will most likely be cut in half.
The only thing that can negative about banning ads for cigarette and tobacco products is that advertising agencies will lose major dough. The tobacco industry is a $33.3 billion industry, it is only natural for advertising agencies to make most of their profit from tobacco advertising
(Smoking & Tobacco use). In 2011, the tobacco industry spent well over $8.4 billion on advertising and promotional costs and about $8.8 billion on marketing in the U.S. alone
(Smoking & Tobacco use). Advertisement agencies would probably throw a tantrum if they

 Tran 11 could no longer rely on tobacco advertisements. There may be a large portion of the advertising team getting laid off and the unemployment rate will increase.
All of these solutions has its flaws, but I believe that banning all and any sort of advertisements from tobacco companies is the best solution compared to all the others. For one thing, eliminating ads is a better solution than raising the age requirements to purchase tobacco because young people there will be less of a disagreement in adult age and it will eliminate young people from thinking smoking is cool and glamorous. It’s also better than raising cigarette and tobacco prices because in the long run it’s cheaper and it’s better for the economic circumstances we are in today. Furthermore, banning all tobacco smoking ads is more advanced than banning public smoking because ads make smoking look super intriguing while public smoking is a normal thing we see everyday and it would less likely alert our pleasure center, so banning ads would decrease the number of smokers since it overpowers public smoking.
Moreover, banning tobacco smoking ads is a step up from teachers trying to educate people because being a young kid, everything on television may look cool and unattainable, it makes young people want to do what they can’t have. Teachers make smoking seem even more elevating because young people will only feel the need to be rebellious. Teachers making such a big deal about tobacco smoking, young people will want to lean towards trying it out. Finally, banning ads beats parents trying to set a good example because it would just save parents so much more time since they won’t have to result in being a stay­at­home parent. Therefore, banning any form of ads for tobacco smoking is the best solution.

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There are 4,000 harmful chemicals that enter your body with every puff of smoke. Taking action and preventing something that can actually be prevented, would be a game changer.
Tobacco is and will always be the monster of all deaths and it cannot continue. The second major cause of deaths in the world is tobacco smoking, which is actually something pretty silly.
Tobacco should just completely disappear from the surface of the earth to save us all the hassle and harm. Because teen smoking has majorly increased, the age requirement should be raised to
21 not only in America, but in every country. Lawmakers should increase the prices for cigarettes and other tobacco products to make it less obtainable for people on a budget, which is almost everyone in this economy. Also, the government could ban public smoking anywhere to protect people’s health and rights. On the other hand, teachers can constructively educate students about the dangers of tobacco smoking and parents can be good role models for their children. Even though all of the solutions are effective, the best solution would be to ban all and any kind of advertisements promoting tobacco smoking.

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Works Cited
Bettcher, Douglas. “Why We Need to Raise Tobacco Taxes.”
Bloomberg
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Philanthropies, 27 May 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
S., Bethany. “Ban Smoking in Public Areas.”
Teen Ink
. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
Schmidt, Lorna. How Schools Can Help Students Stay Tobacco­Free.”
Tobacco Free
Kids. Tobacco Free Kids
. 27 Jun. 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.
Shah, Anup. “Tobacco.”
Global Issues
. Global Issues, 5 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
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Smoking fire safety outreach materials.”
U.S. Fire Administration
. USFA, 2 Dec. 2014.
Web. 30 Nov. 2014.
“Smoking & Tobacco use.” CDC. CDC, 6 Feb. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. “The Effects of Secondhand Smoke.”
WebMD
. WebMD, 12 Sep. 2014. Web. 1 Dec.
2014.
Wade, Leslie. “Doctors support raising the smoking age.”
CNN
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2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.

Cited: . Bloomberg  Philanthropies, 27 May 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.   . Web. 2 Dec. 2014.   Schmidt, Lorna. How Schools Can Help Students Stay Tobacco­Free.” ​ . 27 Jun. 2014. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.   Shah, Anup. “Tobacco.” ​ Global Issues​ . Global Issues, 5 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.   . USFA, 2 Dec. 2014.  Web. 30 Nov. 2014.   “Smoking & Tobacco use.” CDC. CDC, 6 Feb. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.    “The Effects of Secondhand Smoke.” ​ WebMD​ . WebMD, 12 Sep. 2014. Web. 1 Dec.  2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2014.