10 Myths that Undermine Tobacco Control 

In the United States and Canada smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. Even though the health risks are documented and outlined, there are still many myths that encourage people to start or continue smoking.  These myths are caused by a misunderstanding of what seems to be common sense and a deliberate influence from the tobacco industry that mainly targets children to start smoking and keep them smoking into adulthood.

Comprehensive tobacco control programs which include anti–smoking public education can help prevent the undermine of the tobacco company but yet smoking is still prominent in today society and is growing in developing countries and among women.  To keep these individuals smoking many myths are believed to be true by many smokers, physicians and policy makers.

Myth 1: People have a free choice whether or not to smoke

We like to believe that we are all capable of making our own decisions.  However in 2002 the tobacco industry has spent $12.5 billion on advertising cigarettes in the United States which is roughly 18 times the amount that is spent on tobacco prevention.  These advertisements encourage people to smoke particularly the youth and demographic subgroups. 

Even nowadays the tobacco industry is still targeting people from movies such as: the girl with the dragon tattoo, Inglorious bastards, fight club and etc.  The goal of the tobacco industry is to make smoking look cool and they’re doing a good job of it by having the most famous people in Hollywood smoking.

Most smokers want to quit when they’re 26 but the tobacco industry ensures there enough nicotine in cigarettes to keep them addictive and refers to cigarettes as the “nicotine delivery device”. In order to keep people addictive the tobacco industry uses production methods where they add chemical additives and may increase the amounts of nicotine.

Myth 2: Everyone knows how bad smoking is

People are generally aware that smoking is not healthy. But there are instances of unawareness such as: very few women know that smoking can lead to cervical cancer, osteoporosis, early menopause, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. In Canada fewer than half Canadian adults between the ages of 55 to 74 identified smoking as the leading cause of heart disease.

In China, 90% of the smoker population is male and fewer than 1 in 4 people think that smoking causes serious health problems. This is because Chinese born males who have little knowledge about smoking are twice as likely to smoke verses someone who is high informed about smoking.

Myth 3: Just a few cigarettes a day cannot hurt

Even 3 to 5 cigarettes a day can lead to tobacco related illnesses and death.  Diseases such as myocardial infraction, coronary heart disease are not linear with smoking; even small doses of tobacco smoke can increase your chances of catching these diseases rapidly. Pregnant women who smoke as few as 5 cigarettes a day are more likely to have a low birth weight baby.

Myth 4: Light Cigarettes are less harmful

Light cigarettes are just as harmful as regular cigarettes, but yet 60% of smokers believe that light cigarettes refer to low tar or low nicotine cigarettes. Light cigarettes are less harmful based only on machine testing; however, they actually have the same content as the regular cigarettes, when smoked by an actual person.

What usually happens when someone smokes lighter cigarettes is that they begin to smoke more of them to satisfy their nicotine craving which will lead to more tar, carbon monoxide and nicotine being absorbed in their system.

Myth 5: It’s easy to stop smoking; if people want to quit, they will

Many smokers are able to stop on their own but many find it difficult or near impossible to quit. Even doctors found smoking hard to quit. Tobacco is about as addictive as heroin, cocaine and alcohol in addiction potential.

The benefits of quitting smoking are well documented and many people who actually want to quit will make several attempts before actually quitting. However most smokers want to quit but only make 1 attempt a year. Of those who try to quit smoking, only 7% last a year or longer without medication, aid or assistance.

 

Myth 6: Cessation Medication Don’t Work

Smoking cessation medication or NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) such as patches, gum, nasal spray, lozenge and bupropion can double the likely hood of quitting smoking.  Using multiple NRT methods will increase your chances of quitting. Retreatment to a failed NRT course will increase the likeliness you will quit. So don’t give up!

Myth 7: Once a Smoke always a Smoker

The Million people who are former smokers are living proof this isn’t true. It isn’t impossible to quit and set back some of the negative effects of smoking.

Myth 8: Tobacco is good for the economy

Tobacco industries argue that they create employment, raise tax revenue and contribute to the national gross domestic product. But the long term social costs of tobacco outweigh any economic benefit.  The World Bank found money not spent on cigarettes could be spent on other goods and services that in turn would generate other jobs and activities that would replace the tobacco industry’s benefits.

In the United States smoking causes an economic loss of about 167 billion a year.  This includes health care and productivity due to premature death.  This is more than the 81 billion that smokers spend on cigarettes per year.

Myth 9: We’ve already solved the Tobacco problem

The problems caused by tobacco use are far from solved, despite the declining amount of smokers in Canada. It is said that more than 1 in 5 Canadians smoke and globally about 1.3 billion people smoke.  More than 1 billion of those people will die from a tobacco related disease in this century. 

Myth 10: The tobacco industry no longer markets to kids and undermines public health efforts

Cigarette company go out their way to advertise to children because the younger they start the more dependent they will become on nicotine and the less likely they will quit when there an adult.  The tobacco industry advertises by having magazine ads, television ads and even giving away free things such as t-shirts and caps.  Smoking in movies is one of the biggest ways they advertise to young teens.

The tobacco industry employs lawyers, scientists and public effort experts to help divert attention from global health issues.  They create distorted scientific studies, infer with politics and in 2005 they filed a lawsuit to stop public health advertising campaigns that they claimed were anti–industry.

Conclusions:

Many myths that surround smoking are misunderstood. Most don’t realize the true effects tobacco has on the person and the economy.  While government agencies and public agencies must take lead, the health care system, businesses, insurers, communities and individuals play an important role in tobacco control.

Reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449389/