Worrisome Smoking Trends
There are two worrying smoking trends that have developed over the past few years. The first is the popularity of the “roll your own” cigarettes, and the second is the dramatic increase in teen and underage smokers.
We’ll look first at the reason that the roll your own trend is a problem. Some people who are heavy smokers believe that they can reduce costs by rolling their own cigarettes. Some who want to slow down the pace of their smoking believe that rolling their own will force them to cut back. Some people also believe that hand rolled cigarettes are less harmful than those made by tobacco companies.
Let’s assess each of these issues, and determine their value. Firstly, cigarettes made by manufacturers contain roughly four thousand different chemicals, and there are at least fifty known carcinogens in this list of chemicals. They also contain nicotine, which makes someone become quickly addicted to smoking. When someone rolls their own cigarettes they are not going to be exposed to the thousands of chemicals, but they will face exposure to some serious risks. Firstly, they will have a great deal more nicotine in their cigarettes than in those from the tobacco companies. Next, they will be taking in tons of toxic tar, and a great deal more carbon monoxide too.
Now, an increased use of nicotine is going to begin an unhappy chain of events. First it is going to trigger the reward pathways of the brain to a greater level, and because the body develops a resistance to nicotine it will quickly make the smoker need to smoke more often to avoid any withdrawal symptoms.
What this means to those who hand roll their cigarettes is that they will be exposed to more risks of serious cancers, they will increase their need for nicotine, and they will find that they smoke more. This immediately eliminates the ability to save money on cigarettes because of the need to buy more materials as their smoking increases. It also defeats the hopes of those trying to cut back simply because they will be driven to spend time rolling cigarettes to meet their need.
The other disturbing trend is the increase of underage smokers. This is something that is the direct result of the tobacco industry advertising efforts. There are almost one hundred thousand new teenage smokers around the world each year, and more than half of them will continue smoking into their middle ages. The associated costs with such a trend include increased health care costs, environmental impact, and lost productivity.
