The World Health Organization considers tobacco use, such as smoking, a global epidemic that as of December 2009 has been responsible for the deaths of more than 5 million people around the world every year. If the trend continues, WHO predicts the death rate will exceed 8 million people annually by 2030.
Effects
Smokers have made the tobacco industry one of the most profitable industries in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. However, although the industry earns billions of dollars annually, smokers and non-smokers alike end up paying much more money to deal with the health-related consequences of smoking than smokers pay for cigarettes. For example, in terms of societal costs, every pack of cigarettes purchased in 2004 eventually led to $5.32 of lost productivity, plus an additional $5.50 spent on health care. As of April 2010, smoking cigarettes costs U.S. citizens almost $195 billion each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Taxation
An average $2.21 tax increase on every pack of cigarettes went into effect in the United States on April 1, 2009, the largest such increase in the country's history at that point, according to the CDC. Objectives of the increase included discouraging cigarette use and encouraging smokers to quit, two goals that research indicates the tax increase should help achieve. In fact, the CDC estimates that when the cost of cigarettes increases 10 percent, cigarette use decreases by roughly 4 percent.
Quitting Benefits
Smokers who quit begin recovering from the dangerous habit within minutes, according to the American Cancer Society. Their blood pressure, heart rate and blood carbon-monoxide levels decrease on the first day, and their circulation and lung functioning might start to improve in as little as two weeks. As soon as five years later, their risk of a stroke might be identical to that of non-smokers, and their risk of developing coronary heart disease is the same as a non-smoker's after 15 years.
Types
While U.S. smokers overwhelming smoke commercial cigarettes available in stores and other retail outlets, some prefer cigarettes and smoking utensils that use flavored tobacco. Such products typically originate in other countries, and include bidis cigarettes, or beedies; clove cigarettes, also known as kreteks; and hookah, also called narghile or water pipes. Flavored tobacco products are increasingly popular among young smokers, according to the American Cancer Society, although federal laws in the United States made it illegal to sell cigarette varieties as of October 2009. It remains legal to possess or use such flavored cigarettes as of August 2010.
Warning
The American Cancer Society cautions that flavored tobacco products are not safe and put users at risk of developing medical problems that cigarette smoking also causes. For instance, chemical compounds in cloves and clove cigarettes might contribute to lung diseases such as asthma, and bidis contribute to certain cancers, chronic bronchitis and heart attacks. Moreover, using hookah might cause non-cigarette-related health issues, such as infectious diseases, because of the sharing of the pipe with infected people.
References
- American Cancer Society: Questions about Smoking, Tobacco, and Health
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Federal and State Cigarette Excise Taxes - United States, 1995-2009
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Smoking and Tobacco Use - Fact Sheet
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Steady Increases in Tobacco Taxes Promote Quitting, Discourage Smoking
- World Health Organization: WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2009 - Executive Summary
