Teenage Smoking Essay Research Paper teenage smoking

Teenage Smoking Essay, Research Paper Teenage smoking: Giving adults something to stress about since the 1950 s Audience: people of teen age and up Teenage smoking is something that has been going on in the world for more than a while now. Youthful smoking is widely accepted in many cultures, with the exception of that of the United States. In the more recent years of the United States history, much money has been wasted on researching the effects of smoking and advertising those effects. I believe that there is no warrant for any action to be taken against teenage smoking. Every year, the controversy of teenage smoking grows more intense in the United States. More and more research is done on the effect nicotine has on the human body, and consequently more money is spent to

advertise the advantage to quitting smoking. More facts such as, The average age of first tobacco use is now 11-15 (CDC. 1994), Everyday, 3,000 young people become regular smokers (Pierce, J. JAMA. 1989), More than 3 million American adolescents currently smoke (CDC 1994) come out each year to show that youths are choosing to smoke. The people that believe that teenage smoking should cease all value the same things: safety, personal health, money, and things relating to these. The same is true for those who believe in freedom of choice and teenage smoking, they believe in things such as personal freedom, basic rights, and fun. The tobacco industry s argument on this issue is that smoking should be a personal choice and allowed for people over the age of 18, if not younger. Never

have they stated that they endorse underage smoking, but they have utilized advertisement campaigns that obviously appealed to minors. The tobacco industry seems to value some things that are similar to the values of the founding fathers of the United States. Just like them, the tobacco industry is attempting to give freedom to some of the citizens. The people who are opposed to teenage smoking hold some other values important. When they argue that smoking is harmful and will eventually lead to cancer and death, they are showing that they value personal health. This is usually associated with someone older than a teenager who has come to realize that they are that much closer to death and would not like to do anything to shorten the time before. Those opposed to teenage smoking

also value being informed. Many of their tactics to attempt to stop teenagers from smoking include informing them on the issue. The case is not, however, that teenage smokers are not informed on the issue. For example, the job of the anti-smoking commercial campaign was to inform teenagers on smoking so they would quit, but after its launch, statistics have shown that the amount of people under the age of twenty has gone up (Shelley 4). With the United States Government on the side of the anti-smoking campaign, many methods of persuasion are made available. One such method is the endorsement of the Surgeon General on the anti-smoking campaign. On every pack of cigarettes made in the United States, there must be printed a warning from the Surgeon General stating in some way that

smoking is dangerous and unhealthy. This is an example that the United States government holds personal health as a value. This has to be one of the more affective ways to keep people from smoking due to the respect given to the Surgeon General from the public. This makes the quality of the evidence given appear even more precise than it would have without the Surgeon General s endorsement, even though it is true both ways. This tactic also makes a few different conjectures, such as, Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health, and It is Unhealthy to Smoke While Pregnant. The United States government generally consists of people over the age of thirty, disassociating them from the topic of teenage smoking and therefore giving them different values and