Smoke-Free/Tobacco-Free
Living-Benefits for family, kids, community
Imagine
waking up every morning and you cannot start or function without a puff of a cigarette.
Even though it is harmful, the addiction
is too strong, and it seems impossible to quit or to even reduce the amount of
cigarettes or packs consumed. Cigarette
smoking takes over 443,000 lives each year in the United States, and that
number continues to rise (Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
2012). To emphasize how detrimental
tobacco use is, it causes more deaths annually than “deaths from human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle
injuries, suicides, and murders combined,” (Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, 2012). By the year 2030, due
to the current tobacco use status, it will have caused more than 8 trillion
deaths (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).
Knox
County has a population size of 3,981 as of 2009. The health department is located in Edina,
the community center and one of the bigger cities in the county. Edina’s population is 1,110 with a -10.0%
population change since 2000 (Onboard Informatics, 2003-2011). According to the Knox County Health
Department, in 2009, a smoking cessation class was not offered (“Knox county
health,”2009). Studies have shown that
as of 2007, 22.03% of Knox County residents do smoke (Missouri Department of
Health and Senior Services, 2007). Missouri Department of Health and Senior
Services (MICA) have estimates on the number of deaths attributable to smoking
which are “based on smokers’ increase likelihood of dying of various disease,”
(Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, 2007).
In
the United States, coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death, and
smoking is a major factor (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). For a smoker, the disease is 2 to 4 times
more likely to occur (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). Tobacco use causes 90% of lung cancer deaths
in men and 80% in women and 90% of deaths from chronic lung disease for both
genders (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). In addition to harming the individual who is
smoking, they are also harming their spouse, children and others around them in
the community. This is referred to as
secondhand smoke and can cause the same diseases as it would the smoker (Meakem,
2012). Children who live with a parent
or parents that smoke are more likely to develop ear infections, asthma, colds,
and bronchitis than children living in a tobacco-free home (Meakem, 2012). As for the community, smoking can also trigger
children in outdoor and public places to become ill or to be influenced by
adults who smoke (Meakem, 2012). In a
2009 Missouri Youth Risk Behavior Survey of high school students, 46% tried
smoking, 19% smoked cigarettes on at least 1 day during the 30 days before the
survey was given, 7% smoked cigarettes on 20 or more days during the 30 days
before the survey, 5% smoked cigarettes on school property during the 30 days
before the survey and 47% did not try to quit smoking cigarettes (National
Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2009). From this survey, the Center for Disease
Control (CDC) offered solutions that many communities could consider. The solutions for this are to have better
health education, more family and community involvement, and to enforce
healthier school environments (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion, 2009).
There
are many benefits of not smoking, first off is the cost of tobacco use. Smoking
costs the United States billions of dollars ($193), including the health care
expenses (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). As for secondhand smoke, this costs the
United States more than $10 billion which includes health care expenses,
morbidity and mortality (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012).
Another
benefit of not smoking is that you are not harming every organ in your
body. It is a leading cause of cancer
including that of the lungs, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, pancreas,
stomach and cervix which also is the main cause of death in individuals (National
Cancer Institute, 2012). Also, for the
nonsmoking adults and children around you, you are not harming their
organs. Secondhand smoke can increase a nonsmoker’s
risk of heart disease by 25 to 30 percent (National Cancer Institute,
2012). Quitting or not even beginning smoking
can change the course of this disease and prolong a more healthy life. Another benefit
of not smoking is your blood pressure and heart rate will remain normal, as a
smokers heart rate and blood pressure are more likely to be high (National
Cancer Institute, 2012). Nonsmokers
benefit, again, because they will have normal circulation, less phlegm
production and they will most likely not wheeze and cough as a smoker would
(National Cancer Institute, 2012). These
ailments make daily tasks, such as, walking upstairs, playing with your
children, working out, etc, rather difficult.
References
National Cancer Institute. (2012, January 12). Harms
of smoking and health benefits of quitting. Retrieved from
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Tobacco/cessation
