Question

Why is cigarette smoking considered the leading preventable cause of death in the United States? Describe the health consequences of smoking cigarettes. Using the sociological perspective, explain what categories of people are most and least likely to smoke. Why, in your opinion, is cigarette smoking still common, especially among college students?

Answer 1

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death because of the following reasons which are as under.

1. The research and data shows that worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly about 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.so this depicts the serious threat of tobacco usage.

2. Research shows that alone Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from second hand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.

3.Research and data reveals that On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.

4.So if smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.

Health consequences of smoking or impact of smoking on health is shown below as

1.Nearly About More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.

2.For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.

3.Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

4.Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.

5.Smoking is a known cause of erectile dysfunction in males.

Smoking follows a social class gradient in the USA and most developed countries.usually people from lower middle class which are not financially stable and those which are not getting education or they are not performing well in studies are more prone to smkoing .

Beginning in youth, smoking initiation is positively correlated with being from a low income household and performing poorly in school.In youth which are poor in studies are more susceptible to smoking .in nutshell poor people are more likely to smoke .

And people with high standard of life economically stable are least likely to smoke. Higher class smoke less and lower class smoke more .

Cigarette smoking is still a prevalent issue among college students

College students are still smoking cigarettes despite the growing popularity of electric cigarettes.

About One-third of college-aged students use tobacco products in some way, whether it be cigarettes, chewing tobacco or cigars.

According to the CDC, 13 percent of adults aged 18 to 24 smoke cigarettes. Furthermore, 19.8 percent of smokers are high school graduates and 18.5 percent have completed some college. Infrequent or intermitten smoking is common in college students. Cigarette smoking in college is seen as a social activity by those who partake in it, and more than half of the students that are users do not consider themselves smokers.