The Tobacco Epidemic Still Rages On | A YAC Student Blog
Gavin Hodge is a Junior at Dublin Jerome High School
Gavin Hodge
While the coronavirus pandemic ravages the nation, the tobacco epidemic still rages on. According to the World Health Organization, smoking kills half of its users; furthermore, 15% of those who die per year, about 8 million, die because of secondhand smoke. But what can be done about it, especially during this hectic time where an addiction might be the only constant in a person’s life.
First off, it is essential to note what is going on regarding smoking in the US. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is down since the turn of the century. In 2000, 23.3% of the US population smoked, and as of 2017, 15.6% of the US population smokes. However, Ohio is not faring as well as the rest of the nation. As of 2018, 20.5% of Ohioans smoked - and 20,200 died because of it. Ohio needs to do better. While the minimum age to buy tobacco products was increased from 18 to 21 by the federal government and the state and federal government has pushed several anti-smoking campaigns, Ohio is still above the national average. What can we do about that?
The first solution is education. While studies by the CDC show that receiving a higher education reduces your likelihood of picking up a pack of cigarettes and eventually becoming addicted, there also needs to be more out of school education. One of the most effective ways of educating individuals about the risks of smoking is pictures on the package. According to the WHO, packages with large pictorial warnings are effective at curtailing smoking rates in countries. Especially with the largest group of smokers being lower educated individuals, pictorial warnings help to bluntly send them the message about the risks, compared to wordy legal jargon made up by the company producing the product or the government of the country where the product is being sold. Despite tobacco companies arguing the pictorial warnings are scare tactics and do more harm than good, the WHO found that the warnings have no adverse effects. Education is not just for current smokers; it is for former smokers as well. Former smokers must educate their children and people they care about around them about the risk, especially from secondhand smoke. If we want to end this, a recovered addict can not just continue on with their life; moreover, they must continue the fight, so no one around them falls prey to this deadly epidemic.
If education fails, the next step is for individuals to learn how to overcome their addiction if they could slip into one. The CDC argues that one of the best things to overcome your addiction is to reach out to others. Regardless of whether it is your friends and family or talking to someone through the CDC’s anonymous telephone quitline (1-800-QUIT-NOW), it is crucial that a smoker who wants to quit reaches out to find help. It is also imperative to reach out to your general practitioner as they can employ medicinal tactics instead of the aforementioned mental tactics. The common thread between those two is having support and having someone to help you through the withdrawal process.
Ohio is struggling. We are behind the country’s average in regards to almost every metric measured by the CDC. With the ever-increasing number of health crises, we can not let this issue fade off into obscurity as we tackle others.
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