Posted on 06/22/2013 5:15:05 AM PDT by JoeProBono
The stress of the attacks on 9/11 caused an estimated one million former smokers to pick the habit up again, according to a Weill Cornell Medical College public health study.
The research is the first to look at the net costs to society of terrorism-induced smoking in the United States after 9/11 and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Though there is a general consensus that stress is a "very large motivator for individuals to use substances," the stress effects of large-scale events on substance use has not been widely studied.
"This study provides the first unbiased estimate of the effect of stress on smoking, and the finding that there was such a big increase in smoking nationwide, seemingly due to one event, is extraordinary, and surprising,” said study author Dr. Michael Pesko, an instructor in Weill Cornell Medical College's Department of Public Health.
While the Oklahoma City bombing didn’t affect cigarette-smoking rates in the U.S., Pesko suggests that 9/11 caused a significant 2.3 percent increase nationwide.
Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, gathered by health departments in each state and compiled into an annual report by the Centers for Disease Control, includes questions about seat-belt use, smoking and drinking habits, and doctor visits.
Pesko compared 1,657,985 responses to the survey, and extrapolated that from the fourth quarter of 2001 through 2003, when the study ended, between 950,000 and 1.3 million adult former smokers resumed smoking cigarettes, representing a 2.3 percent increase in adult smokers across the country.
"I was really surprised to find that former smokers across the nation resumed their old habit," Pesko said. "I was expecting to see impacts just in the New York City area -- or, at most, the tri-state area."
The study estimated the public cost of 9/11-induced smoking to be between $530 million and $830 million -- potentially higher if the smoking continued beyond 2003.
Pesko said the study "sheds light on a hidden cost of terrorism."
Pesko suggests updated potential public health response to future stress-inducing events, including programs that offer free nicotine replacement therapy soon after. "Another strategy would be to alert health professionals to do more substance abuse screening during regular medical appointments following terrorist attacks, or any such event that is likely to stress the nation," he said.
I haven’t started smoking yet.
"Hidden cost of terrorism?" Smoking? Did they look at Big Gulps as well? Those fires burned hot. What about Global Warming?
Forget about the lives lost that day. Finally, valid reasons to hunt down and kill every terrorist on this planet. (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
Unbelievable.
What HASN’T increased, even though there were DIRE predictions, are the incidents of retaliatory attacks upon muslims in America.
Believe me, if there HAD been such an increase, we would have heard about it.
I believe this.
Just take a look at the increase in the number of democrats and leftist blowing smoke out their butts since 9/11.
I’m filing a compensatory claim right now against Boston Logan Airport, the New York Port Authority, New York City, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the United States Government and the respective airlines for damages resulting from smoking habit restarted due to emotional, physical and safety distress.
I want 5 million...that ought to do it.
2nd hand terrorism kills.
So i guess we can compare the 911 disaster to legalizing homosexual marriage.
We can not legalize mass murder because it might cause some people to smoke.
We should not legalize homosexual marriage because it might cause people to want to legalize plural marriage.
They obviously are more worried about smoking than terrorism, just like the religious leaders seem to be more worried about plural wives as they do homosexuality.
What a bunch of crap heads.
If reaching for a cig calms your nerves after a traumatic event, then THANK YOU Marlboro Man. It’s a free country and we should be able to medicate ourselves however we see fit. Stop studying us and trying to fix us. Mind your own business. No, I’ve never smoked in my life.
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