Smoking – Health and Cost Effects to Society

Smoking – Health and Cost Effects to Society

Case Study – Week 4

William (Bill) Barbour

BSA 542

Advanced Managerial Economics

M733

August 30, 2015

Health effects of smoking        

        Smoking tobacco products have been proven to be bad for your health, and very costly in terms of lives lost and dollars lost in the economy. When you light up, you unleash more than 7,000 chemicals which are found in paint thinners, pesticides, and even chemical weapons. Many of the chemicals in cigarette smoke have the potential to do serious harm to your body, one being carbon monoxide that is formed as the cigarette burns. Dangerous chemicals are also formed when the tobacco leaves are cured, processed, and stored, and during manufacturing of the cigarettes. When cigarettes are labeled “natural” or “additive free” they are not safe because the highly addictive chemical nicotine is found in the tobacco plant itself. Nicotine is addictive and it works fast, taking only about 10 seconds to reach your brain. While a teenager your brain is still developing, which makes you more vulnerable to nicotine and becoming addicted (The Real Cost – Toxic Mix (n. d.).

        In a recent study (Rand Corporation (2015), approximately 70% of unaccompanied homeless youth are current smokers. Although a few studies have described smoking behavior among homeless youth, none have focused on how to help homeless youth quit smoking. As such, there are significant gaps in understanding their interest in quitting and what strategies could be taken to best fit their specific needs. In methods testing, unaccompanied homeless youth were randomly sampled from street sites in Los Angeles County (N = 292). All were current smokers who completed a survey on their smoking-related behaviors and cognitions. The results of the survey showed 65.7% of youth had quit for at least 24 hours during the past year, and 43.4% were motivated to quit. Previous quit attempts tended to be unassisted, but 58.6% reported that they would be interested in formal cessation treatment. Multivariate analyses indicated that motivation to quit was higher among the older youth, Black or Hispanic (vs. White), and who had inquired about smoking by a service provider, but it was lower among those who were more nicotine dependent. Being interested in cessation treatment was more likely among youth when they were asked by a service provider about smoking, or anticipated more barriers to quitting, and were motivated to quit; it was less likely among youth who had slept outdoors during the past 30 days. Smoking cessation is often considered not a priority for homeless youth. However, many are motivated to quit and are interested in smoking cessation products and services. Implications for developing a program for engaging homeless youth in cessation treatment is being discussed.