...The Smoking Ban Debate Smoking, a hot button issue that has gained momentum is on the verge of exploding. Smoking bans are the current answer to the growing backlash from the general public over second hand smoke, a controversial action which brings the subject of individual rights to the forefront. Tobacco use has been debated for hundreds of years, with the medical field describing tobacco use as a “deadly narcotic” as early as 1853. With momentum gaining a pinnacle, regulations implementing and enforcing smoking bans are widespread, with oppositions position that these bans impose on individual rights. David Hudson wrote “The Department of Justice once stated smoking as the single leading cause of death in the United States”. An author/ research attorney who specializes in First Amendment rights, his book, Smoking Bans, widely discusses the impact that smoking bans have protecting public health, while some believe it infringes on individual rights. Key issues surround the debate that revolve around individual choice, social responsibility, and governmental power, and with the issues bring a wide variety of interests. A 2000 lawsuit Supreme Court ruled the Food and Drug Administration was not allowed to regulate tobacco as a drug. To many, this seemed like a logical solution to a smoking culture glamorized by Hollywood in the 1950’s into the 1070’s. To others, it would have ineffective results as the Liquor Prohibition proved to be in earlier years...
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...Abstract Cigarette and Tobacco taxation has been a hot topic for years. Typically, the taxing of this product is accepted as there are health concerns associated with the consumption of tobacco products. The concept of raising cigarette taxes aligns with goals of increasing revenue for local, state and federal governments, and also works to increase the overall public health of the country. Although the taxation is widely accepted, there are concerns associated with who the taxation effects primarily, how funds are being utilized and issues with meeting budget goals with the earned revenue. This paper addresses each of these topics in an effort to identify the effectiveness of cigarette and tobacco taxation. Introduction The concern associated with the health risks of tobacco use and cigarettes began as early as the 1930’s. The ill effects of tobacco were studied by epidemiologists in long term case studies to assess the increase of lung cancer mortality to smoking. The findings were considered merely casual by Surgeon General Leroy Burney in 1957. As a few years passed, the concern between the relationship of smoking and health grew. This led to The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association , The National Tuberculosis Association and the American Public Health Association collaborating together to address a letter to President Kennedy. In this letter they asked for a call to action on the issue of cigarette smoking. The Kennedy Administration...
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...Tobacco in America Edward Seavey Drugs and Society Professor Fuchs DeVry University TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction p. 3 II. History of Tobacco p. 4 III. Social Acceptability p. 6 IV. Medical Issues Related to Tobacco Use p. 8 V. Public Health Campaign p. 9 VI. Legal Measures to Ban Cigarettes p. 10 VII. Conclusion p. 12 Introduction Tobacco and nicotine are legal substances in the United States but are surrounded in a flurry of conflict and controversy. Tobacco can be used in the form of snuff, chewing tobacco, traditional cigarettes and more recently the electronic cigarette. After heavy advertisement and use over the past decades there have been many studies that have shown the negative health effects that tobacco can have on the individual and those around them. Tobacco use is the leading cause of lung and mouth cancers in the United States and also plays a role in many other organs such as the heart and lungs. Armed with this information the government and many other agencies have taken to public health campaigns to raise awareness of these negative effects. In recent years there have been many laws put into place to control tobacco ranging from increased taxes and prohibiting where it can be used. This paper is going to lay out how tobacco production helped shape the United States, how it was an acceptable act to partake in and how in modern times it is becoming a health and legal issue and whether or not it is okay for the government...
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...many individuals with severe health problems, ultimately resulting in serious illnesses. While tobacco use remains an issue; public policies and education have been implemented to help discourage the use of smoking in our society. It was not until the 1960’s when the Surgeon General of the United States reported that cigarette smoking was a health hazard ("History And Economics Of Tobacco", n.d.). However, in the 1980’s is when the local, federal, and state governments and businesses started taking action to prevent people from smoking in public places. In the past, people were able to smoke in stores, offices, and restaurants, thus not realizing its health dangers, especially exposing second-hand smoke to others. Today, smoke-free laws have been enacted at the state and local level to protect the health of the public in and around businesses, increase pricing and taxes, and by making it less accessible for youths to purchase tobacco products ("History And Economics Of Tobacco", n.d.). For example, people cannot smoke within 20 feet of a business establishment and indoors to fully protect non-smokers against the involuntary exposure to second hand smoke. In addition, by raising the prices on tobacco products makes it less affordable and attractive for smokers to purchase. As serious health risks from smoking took many lives, the local government and community have been focusing on campaigns and strategies to assist in ending the tobacco use epidemic. By enacting smoke-free...
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...In this academic article, Gale Jr., Foreman, and Capehart claim that “public health policies intended to reduce the incidence of smoking-related diseases adversely affect the tobacco industry” (1). The authors seek to provide background on the tobacco industry along with its role in the economy, the impacts of declining tobacco use, and the businesses and farmers most affected by the changing tobacco industry. Throughout the article, Gale Jr., Foreman, and Capehart offer a logical and comprehensive, though slightly elitist argument that public health policy negatively affects businesses that deal with tobacco products, especially small communities and farmers. One of the authors’ primary strengths in this source is the use of logos....
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...Health Advocacy Campaign Development Tiffany E. Snowden Walden University NURS 5050/6050 Section 06, Policy and Advocacy for Improving Population Health February 8, 2015 Health Advocacy Campaign Development Living a long, thriving and healthy life is a vision many Americans strive to make a reality. Unfortunately, many are deprived of that dream because of smoking and tobacco use. It is estimated that approximately 16 million Americans suffer from a disease as a result of smoking in addition to the one in five deaths that occur annually from smoking (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to describe the population affected by smoking, summarize the attributes of two successful health advocacy programs and develop a successful health advocacy campaign for smoking. Smoking and the Affected Population Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the nation (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). There are many reasons that an individual chooses to partake in tobacco use including stress and peer pressure. In 2012, with an estimated 42.1 million Americans aged 18 years or older, approximately 18% of the adult population was cigarette smokers (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). Aside from adult users, it is estimated that more than 3,200 adolescents smoke their first cigarette on a daily basis (Smoking & Tobacco Use, 2014). According to the 2012 Surgeon General’s Report, approximately 9 out of 10 smokers initiate smoking by the...
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...American Cancer Society: Advocating for the Family Smoke Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA) 2009. Abstract On June 22, 2009, President Obama signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA). This Act gave the FDA authority to regulate the distribution, manufacture and sale of tobacco to the public in the United States. The American Cancer Society and many others believe that the enactment of an effective national tobacco control policy is a necessary first step in reducing youth and adult smoking, controlling the tobacco industry, and significantly reducing tobacco- related disease and death. Before this day tobacco products were unregulated by the federal government. This paper will discuss the Act and the ACS strong support of this Act, as well as some of its supporters and opposers. My interest group is the American Cancer Society. One of the organizations priority issues is to prevent cancer. They work with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rally communities to join the fight. Many people think of cancer as a purely medical or scientific issue, but it is just as much a political issue. Every day in the news we hear of legislators introducing bills, passing laws and allocating funds that affect people with cancer and their families. Even clinical trials and health insurance all involve legislation. As a community-based organization the ACS unites millions of people...
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...describing the tobacco tax issue in the United States. The first part of the paper defines the tax issue and gives a brief history of the tobacco excise tax. The second section discusses the stakeholders and an analysis of the issue. And lastly, I describe my policy perspective. The Tobacco Tax Issue Is taxation on tobacco an effective means of decreasing the smoking rate or is it just an elaborate ploy to increase taxes by playing on voter emotions? The message is clear and has been etched in our minds over the years; tobacco kills. Tobacco and secondary tobacco products kill an estimated 440,000 Americans per year. Over the past several decades, state and local governments have passed tobacco excise taxes and other laws regulating the use of tobacco. But who is actually behind the legislature? First Tobacco Tax Tax on tobacco was first implemented by Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, in 1794 (Altman, 2009). The tax was soon repealed, but excise taxes have been a staple in federal revenues since the American Civil War. In 1921, Iowa successfully passed the first state tax on tobacco, with many states to follow. Not only does the federal government and state governments tax tobacco, but now city municipalities are also imposing a local tax on tobacco (Altman, 2009). But what is the current tobacco tax about? There are several sides to the argument, as is the case in most taxes. Advocates of the tobacco tax argue that...
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...Tobacco Control Policy 1/25/15 To: The Honorable Sylvia Mathews Burwell Office held: Cabinet Secretary Department of Health and Human Services From: Date: January 26, 2015 Re: Tobacco Control Policy: Use of Plain Packets for Cigarette The purpose of this memo is to propose a tobacco control policy. The health policy is expected to contribute towards prevention of notable effects resulting from tobacco use, especially smoking through reinforcing public awareness on the effects of cigarette smoking. Recommendations on policy implementation will also be offered. Summary/ Problem Statement Tobacco use, especially smoking has been attributed ample health conditions. World Health Organization identifies tobacco use as a core concern for public health, being one of the enormous threats to public health in the world. Despite the existence of public awareness programs, tobacco use continues to impact on our society economically, socially, and health wise. Therefore, it is time to introduce a more appropriate approach of passing the message to the peoplethat will complement the existing policies. The policy deals with cigarette packaging, where advertising images should be removed from cigarette packets and replaced with images passing health messages. Discussion Currently, cigarette manufacturers use the cigarette packet for advertisement, brand promotion, and some section for health message. Arguably, the health...
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...Historical Context Tobacco one of the major leading causes of preventable and premature death, accounting for an estimated 443,000 American deaths in the United States each year or one out of every five deaths. These deaths are due to preventable conditions such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases including emphysema, pneumonia, and chronic airway obstruction. No other risky, self-indulgent addictive behaviors directly endanger bystanders as much as cigarette smoking or tobacco use endangers nonsmokers through secondhand tobacco smoke or inhaled environmental tobacco smoke (Oriona, 2009). According to the Center for Disease Control nearly 24.6% high school students have used at least some type of tobacco product. More than 80% of adult smokers begin smoking by 18 years of age with 99% of first use by 26 years of age. In...
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...Population Health, Part 2 Tobacco Use as Behavioral Risk Factor and its Impact With the rising expenditure of healthcare, focus should be on health promotion. The expenses for health promotion and disease prevention are much lesser than the treatment of a disease. According to Hancock and Cooper (2011), to create a healthy nation it is important that the easy and obvious choices available to people are also the healthy choices. Unhealthy Lifestyle and poor health habits can be considered as a direct or indirect cause of the rise in healthcare expenses. Tobacco use is the behavioral risk factor that I selected since it is an important population health issue in today’s world. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014), more than 480,000 deaths are caused in the United States (US) by cigarette smoking which is about one in five deaths and smoking is the cause of about 90% of lung cancer deaths and about eight out of ten deaths due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is caused by smoking. The results of a survey to monitor youth risk behavior surveillance in the US in 2011 revealed that 18.1% high school students had smoked cigarette within 30 days...
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...This paper will explore the Oncology Nursing Association (ONS), a professional organization aimed at oncology healthcare professionals. The ONS officially started on July 17th, 1975 and now has over 35,000 members (ONS, 2014).The mission defined by the ONS (2014) is “to promote excellence in oncology nursing and quality nursing care.” Its vision is to focus on leading the transformation of nursing care (ONS, 2014). The ONS is firmly active in advocating for people with cancer, the nursing profession, and the oncology specialty (ONS, 2014). Included in this paper will be a discussion of the ONS’ governance, agenda, healthcare issues, membership involvement, and partnerships. The ONS is governed by a chief executive officer (Brenda Nevidjon,...
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...in Public Health ‘Negative Advertising’ is an effective way to influence behavioral changes among general public, but it has only been limitedly used in public health media campaigns. Nevertheless, as public health more and more focuses on non-transmissible disease prevention, negative advertising could be more extensively used. This analysis takes into consideration, a descriptive case from tobacco control. Taking into account internal tobacco industry documents, surveys and tentative data and taking into consideration socio-political reasons, it is described tobacco industry and public health research on the American Legacy Foundation’s ‘‘truth’’ campaign, a key example of effective use of negative advertising in the service of public health. The tobacco industry described that the most effective advertisements run by Legacy Foundations “truth’’ campaign have been negative advertisements. Though the tobacco industry’s own study suggested that these negative ads acknowledged and effectively branded the cigarette as a harmful consumer product rather than focusing only on tobacco companies, some people accused Legacy of defaming it. Public health researchers have confirmed the effectiveness of the ‘‘truth’’ campaign in reducing smoking initiation. Research on political advocacy indicating the value of negative advertising has been only used rarely in the development of public health media campaigns, but negative advertising can easily communicate certain public health messages...
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...describes a new sixth sense. "The moral sense," he calls it. It's the way we, as human beings, determine what issues are moral or amoral. Take smoking, for instance. Years ago, it was widely considered to be a health issue. Many non-smokers didn't smoke because they worried about how cigarettes could affect their lungs and heart. When scientists determined that second-hand smoke was unhealthy too, smoking became a moral issue. Smoking is one of the most widespread bad habits all over the world. In its turn, tobacco industry is one of the most profitable businesses nowadays. Millions of people start smoking, and then decide they want to get rid of this habit, thus the health industry products for smokers who try to quit their habit are also quite attractive to invest in. Nowadays everyone knows smoking is hazardous for the health of the smoker, and of people who inhale cigarette smoke; it leads to lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases, influences on prenatal development, and causes many other unpleasant and dangerous effects. Hot dogs, baseball and cigarettes? How did smoking become an American tradition? The "History of Tobacco" article state, American Indians began using tobacco as early as 1 B.C for medicinal and religious purposes. In the early nineteenth century, tobacco became increasingly popular among the gold miners and cowboys (History of Tobacco). During this era, tobacco became "Good as Gold." In 1913, Camel and Marlboro brands established cigarettes and both creatively began...
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...about science advancement to meet its own interest. Describe the strategies used to effect science research. Action on smoking and health (ASH) Action on smoking and health is a public health charity which has focus on tobacco use and the eventual elimination of tobacco related illnesses, ASH is for public health and tobacco control and aims to set out evidence-based yet innovative policies. ASH is committed to the efficient and effective use of resources and work collaboratively with others to pursue their vision a world free from the harm caused by tobacco. About 100,000 people per year die from smoking-related diseases in the UK and tobacco is a major cause of illness and health inequalities. Tobacco is a powerfully addictive drug that most of its users would like to quit using. ASH works by formulating the best information and analysis of the tobacco problem and credible responses, then communicates that to the public, opinion-formers and decision-makers in order to generate the public and political impetus for the measures that will reduce tobacco use and ultimately tackle the epidemic of disease and death that it causes. ASH is taking action by working with allies around the globe to utilize human rights obligations to pressure governments to take more action against tobacco consumption, and to use human rights treaties to counter the tobacco industry’s lobbying and...
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