We all know that smoking is bad for you. Nobody can sugar coat the facts, and not many people try to, for good reason. Every year, nearly 5 million people die as a result of smoking. It is the number one preventable cause of death in the world, and 500 million people alive today will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. Although the exact numbers may not be at everyone’s disposal, not many people in the western world don’t know the risks of smoking. However if this is the case, why do so many people start, and continue, to smoke?
There are very obvious answers of course. One reason many people start is peer pressure. I know many people who start to smoke purely because their friends do, and it seems the ‘cool’ or ‘right’ thing to do. This is of course a very stupid reason. I am sorry if I cause offence to anyone by saying that, and I myself have had cigarettes with friends, but I can count the number on one hand, because I knew it wasn’t right to carry on. I am not putting myself on a moral high horse, I am just saying it as it is. The obvious reason people continue to smoke is of course science. You can’t get away from the fact that cigarettes are addictive, or at least, substances inside the cigarette are. I am of course stating the obvious here. There are evident obstacles in the way of not starting or giving up cigarettes, but it is fair to say that these are obstacles that with the right amount of willpower can be overcome, so why don’t people overcome them?
For clarification, it is best to separate the developing and the western world. In the developing world, the inhabitants aren’t as lucky as us on the other side of the pond, and don’t have ready access to information about the dangers of smoking. In these countries, there is a lower percentage of smokers. Although this may sound like good news, the fact that this provides a lucrative market for tobacco companies, coupled with the governments in need of anything that will increase their income, the mix isn’t going to produce good results! In Cambodia, tobacco advertising increased by 400% in just 4 years in the 1990s. Unfortunately, children are also targeted. Nearly one in ten Chilean children surveyed said they had been offered free cigarettes by tobacco company representatives. Many smokers in the developing world have little or no conception of the risks. In one survey, it was found that 61% of Chinese smokers thought that their habit did them no harm. From the evidence, it seems that smoking in the developing world isn’t at all rational, but induced by greedy enterprises and governments who turn a blind eye.
However, the story is different in the developed world. Most people know the risks and there are very strict laws regarding packaging. This is one reason I don’t smoke, as I have this silly little rule where if anything I am about to consume has “this will kill you” on the packaging, I change my mind. Pedantic I know, but each to their own.
However, enough of the tobacco-bashing, I am going to take a risk and actually be on the side of the smokers for once! Firstly, although not linked to the question, the number of smokers has been declining in the industrialised west. In 1974,51% of British men smoked, whereas this had declined to 28% in 2001. Secondly, some people just like to smoke. I mentioned earlier that peer pressure is a reason, but it can also be a benefit. Sometimes on a night out we are faced with a choice; wait inside and look after the drinks, or go outside and have a chinwag with friends. I think it is rational, even with the smoke, to choose the latter option. Also, a lot of people say that smoking relaxes them. Personally, I don’t need to take a chemical-filled drug to relax me, and other people don’t either, but if it helps people, then why be against it?
If there was no benefit to smoking then people wouldn’t do it. For governments, the benefit is tax revenue, for companies it is profit, and for people there must be something! There are of course many people out there who are trying to quit, and struggle. The fact of that matter is that it is a challenge to kick the habit (although this phrase actually refers to opium, deriving from the fact that after taking too much, one has a tendency to fit and kick out). However, there are people out there who choose not to. Other things can kill people as well. There are obese people in the world, who on the most have made a “rational” (I shall argue that obesity isn’t actually wholly rational in another blog post) decision to eat more calories than they expend, thus putting on weight. This also shortens life expectancy. People also drive their cars really fast without wearing a seat belt, jump off bridges with merely a bit of material on string above them, and work 18 hour days which cause a lot of stress. Of course, this is not completely comparable, but the fact of the matter is that it can be a rational habit, such as the other activities mentioned are rational.
Although I would not actually recommend smoking to anyone, and I do actually frown upon it, it is important to understand that people who smoke aren’t idiots, and know exactly what they are doing. I think it is also important to remember a story. A man who is viewed as very intelligent is a smoker. He is at a dinner party, and keeps getting unkind looks of the woman opposite of him. He plucks up the courage to ask her what problem is. She professes “You are a very intelligent man, but yet you smoke those things knowing they will kill you”, to which he responds, “oh how differently I would behave, if immortality were an option”.
PS Smoking Kills
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