Heated debate: flavored tobacco
Mike McCall
Issue date: 10/26/09 Section: Opinion
Illegalization of fruit, clove cigarettes necessary legislation, measure (by Mike McCall)
Think back to when you first tried smoking. Statistically, about two thirds of you have. If you were like me, you may have puffed on a flavored cigarette. Fortunately I escaped my teenage rebellion without becoming hooked on cigarettes; however, many of my peers weren't so lucky.
The recent FDA ban on flavored cigarettes will no doubt lessen the number of teens who try smoking. Although the impact won't be overwhelming, legitimate reasoning is behind this measure.
"Flavored cigarettes attract and allure kids into lifetime addiction," said Howard K. Koh of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health. "The FDA's ban on these cigarettes will break that cycle for the more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily."
According to FDA statistics, 90 percent of adults begin smoking as a teen at an average age of 13. The same studies show 17-year-old smokers are three times more likely to use flavored cigarettes than smokers over 25.
If teens can no longer get their hands on flavored cigarettes, their only option will be to try regular ones, which typically involves one of the foulest flavors to ever tingle your taste buds, accompanied by light-headedness, nausea, coughing, throat irritation and (hopefully) no desire to experience it again.
Many teens think flavored cigarettes are safer than their regular counterparts. Quite the contrary -- they both contain more than 4,000 chemicals, 43 known cancer-causing compounds and 400 other toxins. Even smoking an innocent, sweet-smelling clove cigarette provides a means to introduce tar, carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, DDT, nicotine (which gives tobacco its 90 percent addiction rate) and many other damaging chemicals.
Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death, claiming 438,000, or nearly one of every five deaths each year in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined.
Think back to when you first tried smoking. Statistically, about two thirds of you have. If you were like me, you may have puffed on a flavored cigarette. Fortunately I escaped my teenage rebellion without becoming hooked on cigarettes; however, many of my peers weren't so lucky.
The recent FDA ban on flavored cigarettes will no doubt lessen the number of teens who try smoking. Although the impact won't be overwhelming, legitimate reasoning is behind this measure.
"Flavored cigarettes attract and allure kids into lifetime addiction," said Howard K. Koh of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health. "The FDA's ban on these cigarettes will break that cycle for the more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily."
According to FDA statistics, 90 percent of adults begin smoking as a teen at an average age of 13. The same studies show 17-year-old smokers are three times more likely to use flavored cigarettes than smokers over 25.
If teens can no longer get their hands on flavored cigarettes, their only option will be to try regular ones, which typically involves one of the foulest flavors to ever tingle your taste buds, accompanied by light-headedness, nausea, coughing, throat irritation and (hopefully) no desire to experience it again.
Many teens think flavored cigarettes are safer than their regular counterparts. Quite the contrary -- they both contain more than 4,000 chemicals, 43 known cancer-causing compounds and 400 other toxins. Even smoking an innocent, sweet-smelling clove cigarette provides a means to introduce tar, carbon monoxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, DDT, nicotine (which gives tobacco its 90 percent addiction rate) and many other damaging chemicals.
Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death, claiming 438,000, or nearly one of every five deaths each year in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 6
Grossed out
posted 10/26/09 @ 1:25 PM PST
To Devin: How many deaths each year does tobacco cause? How many deaths each year does alcohol cause?
Tobacco is over 400,000 each year. Alcohol is only about 85,000. (Continued…)
Prerogative
posted 10/26/09 @ 8:21 PM PST
Consistently our government makes laws that either allow us as Americans to make choices for ourselves or take choices away. In most cases we can choose what we want to do with our own bodies. (Continued…)
stopsmokinghabits
posted 2/12/10 @ 6:52 PM PST
"Flavored cigarettes" Department of Health Disease Control and Prevention.Provide more information about More deaths are caused by tobacco use each year than by other illness. (Continued…)
Retail Sucks
posted 2/15/10 @ 2:02 PM PST
I have been a smoker for a long time. Thinking back my first cigarette was a Clove or some kind of vanilla smelling cigarette. I am glad to see this ban, it's a step in the right direction. (Continued…)
russian girlfriend
posted 3/21/10 @ 3:12 PM PST
This article is amazing. I?m going to spend so much time procrastinating on here. I?m not quite sure if I should be thanking you, or cursing you
Post a Comment