Dangers of tobacco examined
By Matthew Miller
Special to The Graham Star
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic to the Americas.
Upon his arrival, he was greeted by Native Americans with food, shelter and tobacco.
Before it was brought to Europe and distributed to the rest of the world, tobacco had only naturally grown in the Americas. It was used by Native Americans ceremonially and medicinally.
Hundreds of years later, tobacco has become one of the largest players in economies around the world.
Marketing
In 2018 alone, the leading world tobacco industries grossed approximately $35.1 billion, equal to the combined profits of Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and McDonald’s in the same year.
Tobacco is a huge part of world economy due to its highly addictive nature.
According to the Truth Initiative, chemicals have been added to tobacco products, in order to make the products more addictive and therefore, more profitable. A court-ordered advertising campaign – in which tobacco companies admitted to the way in which cigarettes were being designed to make them more addictive – began in 2017.
The hook
Tobacco naturally contains nicotine, an addictive property. Nicotine can be found in products such as chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, and vapes. Other dangerous chemicals can be found in tobacco products, including arsenic, ammonia, acetone and hydrogen cyanide, but these are just a few of 600 ingredients in most tobacco products. There are 7,000 different chemicals in smoked tobacco products – at least 69 of which are known to cause cancer – and many of which are toxic.
The dangers
According to the center for disease control, in 2018 approximately 480,000 American smokers died due to complications directly related to tobacco use and 41,000 people died due to exposure to secondhand smoke, 400 of which were infants.
Some of the most prominent causes of death in smokers include, but are not limited to, lung cancer, heart disease, COPD, and stroke.
Close to home
In Western North Carolina – mirroring national statistics – the tides have turned for the tobacco usage demographic. Previously, adults were the most common users of tobacco and tobacco-related products. Adult usage dropped from 20.4 percent in 2009 to 13.2 percent in 2017.
While adult use is decreasing, use among Western North Carolina youth has increased, rising from 7.7 percent to 31.7 percent, based on the results of the 2017 N.C. Youth Tobacco Survey. High schools across the region are facing student use of tobacco more than ever.
New products
With new ways of introducing nicotine into the body, students are taking full advantage of the new technology.
Vaping is a new craze that is taking over the demographic of teenage tobacco users across the country. With new technology, you are able to consume more of the addictive chemicals found in tobacco products than you ever could. Juul, a popular vape brand among teenagers, uses liquid-filled pods to create smoke inhaled by the user. Each individual pod contains both 0.7 milliliters of liquid and the same amount of nicotine as the average pack of cigarettes.
The battle
With the new year comes a new law.
A statement on the FDA’s website announced, “On December 20, 2019, the President signed legislation to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and raise the federal minimum age of tobacco products to 21 years of age.” Prior to this, the minimum age had been 18.
The goal of this new law is to make it more difficult for minors to obtain tobacco. This has caused a great deal of debate. Some believe that it is unfair, arguing that if you are old enough to go to war, you should be old enough to make your own choices.
Others believe it will protect America’s youth from their inability to make informed decisions.
This goes to show that whether it is right or wrong to heighten the minimum age, tobacco is a dangerous substance, especially for younger generations.