Smoking is injurious to health. This is something everyone has been taught pretty much since the time we were all kids. Smoking is a trigger for various cancers and the health deteriorates quite fast. In earlier days smoking was quite prevalent and people could smoke almost about anywhere- hospitals, railways, colleges, movie theaters and the like; with rising awareness about health and the deleterious effects of smoking, the manufacturers have been banned from advertising the cigarettes on TV, web or any other print advertisements. But, we still see people smoking heavily and most of them being chain smokers- why? The answer, in a word, is addiction.
There is a popular belief that smokers are addicted to the nicotine, which although is true, but according to a recent study, in US, teens who are chain smokers, about 46% of girls and 30% of boys smoke only to control their weight. Girls, who said they were “over-weight” were about 225% more likely to smoke while for boys, being overweight was not much of an analyst for smoking, that could be probability because they feel less peer and societal pressure to lose weight than girls do; but even so, about 145% of the “over-weight” boys were more likely to smoke.
Expert, John Cawley said, “This helps us better understand why people choose to engage in risky health behaviors. It’s not always just about the immediate pleasure or enjoyment; sometimes it’s a means to another end.” But, when it comes to Preventable deaths in US, tobacco stands on top. Youngsters lighting up the tobacco mostly to escape from the stress and pressure is troubling especially in the light of the fact that they start smoking in their earlier 20’s and proceed with the addiction into adulthood.
There was a Health Behavior study conducted in the schools for about 10,500 schoolchildren, who were 11, 13 or 15 years- the youngsters then reported their heights and weights and their view of the weight, which they replied with either “much too thin,” or “a bit too thin,” or “about right”, “a bit excessively fat” or “much excessively fat.” The Food and Drug Administration may wish to deny cigarette organizations from advancing smoking can help one get thinner, Cawley said.
–By NB
