Smoking or Health: A Glass Half Full or Half Empty

By on January 15, 2009 in Politics & Policy

We have come long way in changing smoking behavior in the past 60 years.  I recall that, as a child 60 years ago, I was well aware a smoke free space was extremely rare.   In my experience more than 80% of adult, white men smoked tobacco (official estimates indicate 60%), while many chewed tobacco and/or dipped snuff.  Far fewer women did so; less than 15% smoked tobacco (I only knew one) and a few chewed tobacco and/or dipped snuff.  Only in a church, a school or a few other rare locations could a non-smoker find relief from a smoky environment.  Smokers lit up and chewers spit in hospitals, AMA conventional halls, APHA convention halls, and medical school clinics, as well as taverns, saloons, restaurants, and most homes.  There were ash trays and spittoons virtually everywhere indoors.

Today, there are lots of smoke free environments, including hospitals, AMA convention halls,APHA convention halls, medical school clinics, many restaurants, most homes and even some taverns and saloons.  Fewer than 25% of adult, white males smoke.  While the percentage of adult white women who smoke is greater today, the overall rate is markedly down.  Most ashtrays are gone and spittons appear only among antique collections.  For many of us, we see this progress and view the glass as at least half full.  For others, this is not the case.

Yesterday, January 13, 2009, I saw a HealthDay News headline that reads:  U.S. Flunks on Tobacco Control Report Card.  This report states:  According to the American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control 2008, the federal government as well as most states failed to enact critical policy measures, such as higher taxes on cigarettes and to adequately regulate tobacco products.   Upon reading the article, it seems to me that standards for passing the grade are quite high.  I like smoke free environments and want to see more done to cause them to happen, but it seems we are moving the markers of success pretty fast.

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About Mark J Kittleson

Mark J. Kittleson is in his 37th year as a health educator, having spent over 21 years at Southern Illinois University and having been at New Mexico State University since January 2011. Dr. Kittleson is best known for his development and management of the HEDIR Discussion group, as well as his efforts to help the profession of health education utilize technology.
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  • Karl

    I love talking about this topic. No one answer fits all philosophies, and about 1000 philosophies exist, so let's get to it! I am of the ilk that we simply can't move fast enough. Without going on into some 50,000schpeel, I will simply say, we know the inherant dangers, we know the killing it does, and we know the addictive quality of the product. Maybe we don't pass an outright ban, but at a minimum, considering how we treat other narcotics with the same deadly potential, it should be regulated by the FDA and available in only certain cercomstances. No exceptions. The nations would be better for it, it is easily within the scope of possibility, and if it weren't for political influence, it would have been done decades ago. Just my 2 cents.

  • Bill Cissell

    Karl,

    Thanks much for your reply. I started life on a tobacco farm, where my parents labored as sharecroppers. Most of my kinfolk on my dad's side were engaged in raising tobacco as a money crop. A fair share of my mother's kinfolk were as well. I still have cousins who earn their living raising tobacco. I understand how farm substities work and the role the tobacco industry plays in keeping tobacco a legal drug.

    Given all we know, I believe we have made significant progress, I no longer hold a second mortgage on a cousin's tobacco farm. Most of the health educatiors in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia no longer earn income on tobacco, as more than 50% of the faculty at East Tennessee State University did when I began working there in 1979.____Like you I would like to see tobacco use plummet some more, but I do not see it reaching the point of the FDA regulating it within my lifetime. I have served on boards of the Tennessee Affiliate of the American Heart Association and the Dallas Area – American Lung Association, and I have led smoking cessation workshops for the American Canceer So world.____Bill

  • Bill Cissell

    Karl,

    Upon checking the comments today, I notice that the one I posted previously has disappeared. In it I talked about how, in my early career, I worked with health educators who were invested in production of tobacco. This included me, because I held a second mortgage on my cousin's tobacco farm. This was a common pattern for health educators living in tobacco producing states, including Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Far fewer of us do so today.

    Far fewer of our kinfolk are engaged in producing tobacco today. Only a couple of my second cousins and a nephew work in tobacco production now. Thus, for me, there is notable progress

    Bil

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