Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
INTRODUCTION
Cigarette smoking, the signal most preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the
United States, is responsible for a death toll exceeding the combined fatalities from AIDS,
alcohol, cocaine, heroin, homicide, suicide, motor vehicle accidents, and fires. Although the
number of smokers in U.S has declined in the past three decades, tobacco use among adolescents
and young adults continues to increase, especially among women and minority college students
(Moskal, Dziuban & West, 1999).
Like most people, you already know that smoking is bad for your health. But do you
really understand just how dangerous smoking really is? Tobacco contains nicotine, a highly
addictive drug that makes it difficult for smokers to kick the habit. Tobacco products also contain
many poisonous and harmful substances that cause disease and premature death (Harry Mills,
Ph.D.).
Smoking in PG-13 films -- including background shots and other passing instances -- was
just as strongly linked with real-world experimentation as the smoking in R-rated films. For
every 500 smoking scenes a child saw in PG-13 movies, his or her likelihood of trying cigarettes
increased by 49%. The comparable figure for R-rated movies was 33%, a statistically negligible
difference.
"The movie industry [should] treat smoking like it treats profanity and sex and violence,"
says lead author (Dr. James D. Sargent, a cancer-prevention specialist and professor of pediatrics
at Dartmouth Medical School, in Lebanon, New Hampshire.) "If saying the 'F' word twice gets
you an R rating, certainly something as important as smoking should get you an R rating."
There are more than 8 million college students between the ages of 18 to 24 in the United
States. According to the results of National Health Interview survey, smoking among people ages
18 to 24 years old rose after 1991. According to the CDC's 1995 National College Health Risk
Behavior Survey 75 percent of the respondents in that age group tried cigarettes. Similar findings
were in a study of California college students' health risk behaviors (Patrick, Covin, Fulop,
Calfas & Lovato, 1997), in which 71% of student surveyed indicated that they had tried
cigarettes, 19% had been regular smokers at some time, and 20% were current smokers.
users, while only 3.7% said they currently use chewing tobacco and 1.2% said they currently
smoke pipes. Those findings brought the total tobacco use up to 33%.
fewer health complaints, and less frequent bouts with chronic bronchitis and pneumonia than
current smokers. People who quit smoking can actually reduce their risk of developing lung
cancer or other smoking-related diseases.(Smoking and How to Quit Smokingby Melissa
Conrad Stppler, MD et.al).