Every day 4,000 kids light up a cigarette for the first time, according to a recent report, and doctors and advocacy groups are blaming tobacco companies for reaching out to adolescents as customers.
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said “The tobacco industry has repeatedly marketed its deadly, addictive products to children as part of a broad strategy to hook the next generation of customers by portraying smoking as glamorous, cool and alluring,” a Feb. 20 press release announcing its newest statistics said.
Boston University School of Public Health social and behavioral sciences professor and tobacco control researcher Michael Siegel said the tobacco industry has been tremendously successful at recruiting youth smokers.
He said companies have managed to make smoking appealing to the younger demographic despite legislative limits on tobacco marketing like the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998.
“Nicotine is a powerfully addictive chemical in cigarettes, and it is possible for youths to get addicted after just a few cigarettes,” Siegel said.
A July 2006 University of Massachusetts Medical School study suggests a quarter of adolescents who try cigarettes become addicted within a month and also states even youth smoking one cigarette every few weeks can suffer withdrawal symptoms.
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids website, 20.5 percent of Massachusetts high-school students smoke and go through almost 15 million packs of cigarettes each year. More than $2.7 billion is spent annually in Massachusetts for health care related to smoking, according to the state Tobacco Control Program.
Women’s magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan advertise Camel No. 9 cigarettes, sold in shiny black and pink boxes, and feature promotional giveaways of pink bracelets and cellphone accessories. A Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ May 2007 study said this type of marketing specifically reaches out to teenage girls and young women.
In the past year, interest groups have lobbied for movies to receive an R-rating if they include an excessive amount of smoking. Other cigarette companies have spiced up traditional tobacco with flavors, such as mocha, berry, pineapple, to attract younger smokers.
BU students looking to kick the habit can turn to Student Health Services for support with smoking cessation counseling and other services. SHS Director David McBride said SHS “routinely” asks students if they smoke and recommends quitting, and will prescribe medicine to help quit if the student wishes.
“Provided advice about quitting is highly associated with attempts to quit,” McBride said.
ACS Massachusetts branch spokeswoman Kate Langstone said the group’s website provides a tool to calculate how many cigarettes people have smoked since they started or how much their smoking habit has cost.
The ACS hosts a yearly Great American Smoke Out each November to encourage smokers to set a “quit date,” and it distributes materials explaining the health benefits of throwing away your cigarettes, Langstone said.
The ACS works with a number of hospitals and will refer to teens to professionals for help quitting if they cannot do it alone.
“We would never shut the door on anyone,” Langstone said.
