Posted on 03/09/2012 8:32:31 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
RICHMOND, Va. -- More work needs to be done to keep young Americans from using tobacco, including creating smoking bans and increasing taxes on tobacco products, the U.S. Surgeon General's office said in a report released Thursday.
Almost one in five high school-aged teens smokes, down from earlier decades, but the rate of decline has slowed, the report said.
It says it's particularly important to stop young people from using tobacco because those who start smoking as teenagers can increase their chances of long-term addiction. They also quickly can experience reduced lung function, impaired lung growth, early heart disease and other health problems like asthma.
More than 80 percent of smokers begin by age 18 and 99 percent of adult smokers in the U.S. start by age 26, according to the 920-page report, which is the first comprehensive look at youth tobacco use from the surgeon general's office in nearly two decades.
"In order to end this epidemic, we need to focus on where we can prevent it and where we can see the most effect, and that's with young people," Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We want to make our next generation tobacco-free, and I think we can."
The report details youth tobacco use, health impacts, and tobacco marketing and prevention efforts in the U.S. Officials hope the information will reinvigorate anti-tobacco efforts and spark public activism in reducing death and disease caused by tobacco use.
The report also recommended anti-smoking campaigns and increased restrictions under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's authority to regulate tobacco as other ways to prevent adolescents and young adults from using tobacco products.
Benjamin did not point fingers on why youth tobacco use continues in the U.S. Instead, she wants to see how the nation as a whole can best address the issue, she said.
"I don't want to focus on blame, I want to focus on prevention," she said. "I want to make sure we're doing everything that we can to prevent kids from ever starting to smoke or use tobacco products."
The surgeon general's office last issued a report on youth tobacco use in 1994, the first wide-ranging report on the topic by federal health officials. The new report is the 31st issued by U.S. surgeons general to warn the public about tobacco's risks. The first report in 1964 declared tobacco to be deadly.
Since the 1994 report, smoking among high school students has declined from 27.5 percent to 19.5 percent, or about 3 million students, but the rate of decline has slowed in recent years. About 5.2 percent, or 600,000 middle school students also are current smokers. According to the report, every day in the U.S., more than 3,800 people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette and more than 1,000 of them become daily smokers. They replace the 1,200 people who die each day in the U.S. from smoking.
"Too many of our children are addicted, too many cannot quit, and too many go on to die far too young," Assistant Secretary for Health Howard Koh said at a Thursday news conference.
The report also examined advertising and promotional activities by tobacco companies, which have been shown to "cause the onset and continuation of smoking among adolescents and young adults."
Tobacco companies have spent increasing amounts of money on marketing efforts to reduce prices, which health officials said in the report could influence access to price-sensitive youth and make cigarettes more affordable.
Same here. Of course we know that most air is pristine —like something you would breathe standing on a mountain top — except in places where guys like you and I are sitting around having a pipe.
The only people I ever see smoking anymore are kids. At the price of a pack of cigarettes They are the only ones that can afford to smoke.
I quit smoking four years ago, but I plan to start smoking again on May 25, 2047. The day I turn Eighty. Boy I can’t wait I could really use a smoke.
Marijuana use and teen pregnancy, on the other hand, are perfectly all right to the generation of ageing hippies who make up a substantial fraction of the current adult population.
My grand father died in his mid 80s, he had quit smoking many years prior. Lying in his hospital room dying, with my dad and me present, he asked me for a cigarette, you could smoke in hospitals back then. I looked at my dad and he just nodded his head yes. I gave my gramps a cigarette, even lit it for him. Then I went out and bought him a couple packs of his preferred brand. He died a couple of days later.
They shed crocodile tears and yammer on about health while scheming of new ways to use an issue to rake in more money.
And it is not just tobacco - they pervert any issue at all to gain power and money.
Thanks for the ping!
“Not all smokers get or have lung issues.”
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I’ve posted this before. I’m 79 and have been smoking since I was 17. I’m in as good shape as most women my age.
I smoked during my 5 pregnancies. My husband also smoked. I raised 5 healthy non-smokers.
This insanity stopped being about health years ago. It is about control on some fronts and revenue on others.
They worry more about young people smoking than young people “hooking up” with multiple partners. No revenue in that,I guess.
I wonder how profitable selling condoms to 30 year old law students could be.................... I guess it all depends on how bad they want them I suppose.
Of course more work is necessary. That is what government drones do, they continue to be addicted to increasing their feifdoms in the interest of controlling others. How else do they increase their pay?
That many FReepers applaud such activity is very sad.
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