Smoking Addiction A Major Problem In New Zealand

Discuss the Report for Smoking Addiction A Major Problem In New Zealand.

Every year in New Zealand, around 5000 people die due to smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke (Peto, Lopez, Boreham, & Thun, 2012). Use of tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths in New Zealand, and the reason why? smoking addiction. Smoking addiction is a medical condition that follows after prolonged nicotine intake.  Smoking is part of the concerns that majority of countries around the world deal with especially when it comes to the health sector. This paper looks at smoking addiction in New Zealand, and its effects. With smoking addiction leading to the deaths of fifteen people daily in New Zealand, it is at an alarming rate and thus a major problem.

Problems That Accrue From The Smoking Addiction

The health effects smoking.

Smoking has very adverse effects and more so if it is not stopped before addiction. An addict to smoking repeatedly self-administers the nicotine substance in amounts which produce reinforcing psychoactive effects. He or she also has much hardship in achieving voluntary permanent or even long term cessation from the harmful use of nicotine. The difficulty in quitting tobacco smoking is what makes it a dangerous activity. Half of the smokers today, and who will continue smoking, will in due course be killed by tobacco (Peto, et al., 2000). Globally, the approximate number of people who smoke is 1.3 billion, and each year tobacco leads to five million premature deaths (World Health Organization, n.d).

In New Zealand, smoking is responsible for one in four of all cancer deaths (Laugesen, 2000).  Research by Vineis, et al., (2004) indicates that smoking raises the risks of developing diseases of the circulatory and respiratory system, and the cancers that arise from these conditions are of the pharynx, larynx, oral cavity, pancreas, lung, and esophagus. The research says there is also an increased risk of developing diseases of the pelvis, urinary tract, digestive tract, and bladder in people who smoke tobacco. Smoking is a leading cause of blindness, and in New Zealand in a year, about 1300 people acquire untreatable blindness due to the past and current smoking (Wilson, Field, & Wilson, 2001). A significant role gets played by tobacco in bringing about health inequalities within New Zealand; smoking prevalence is higher among low-income groups, Pacific and M?ori people (Hill, Blakely, & Howden-Chapman, 2003).

Second-hand smoke.

One of the reasons why smoking addiction is a major problem in new Zealand is the negative consequences it has on the non-smokers. Second-hand smoking happens when someone inhales smoke that has been exhaled by a smoker. Being the leading environmental source of preventable deaths in New Zealand, 350 New Zealanders die each year from second-hand smoking from other people’s tobacco smoke (Hill, Blakely, Kawachi, & Woodward, 2004). Just like the actual smokers, the second-hand smokers also get exposed to variety health complications: Lung and nasal sinus cancer, acute stroke, coronary heart disease, and eyes and nasal irritation.

Of the entire population in New Zealand, twenty-five percent suffer from heart disease, asthma, cystic fibrosis, emphysema, and other medical conditions that are aggravated by second-hand smoke (Woodward, & Laugesen, 2001). Children who have exposure to second-hand smoke experience adverse effects: more susceptibility to cold, coughs, and wheezes; increased risks of glue ear, meningococcal disease, and chest infections. Such children also have higher chances of hospitalized care in their first year, as well as raised chances of becoming smokers due to the slowly and indirectly acquired addiction to nicotine. In M?ori, children are more exposed to second-hand smoke than the children who are non-M?ori; adults living with smokers yet do not smoke have a 15 percent higher risk of death that those who have in a smoke-free household (Hill et al., 2004).

Figures one is an indicator the smoking prevalence is very high in M?ori and especially among women. Figure two, shows the proportion, in ages, of the population who currently smoke tobacco with the highest being ages 18-24 (Harris, et al., 2006).

Fig. 1:

Fig.2:

Curbing Smoking Addiction

The government of New Zealand, via its ministry of health, has been keen and active in the development of tobacco control policies. It is also involved in service development and other operational aspects of tobacco control policies. The ministry ensures the compatibility of the tobacco control activities with the international best practice in tobacco control and also with the obligations it has under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). According to Goel, & Nelson, (2006), the New Zealand government introduced the Anti?Smoking Legislation and cessation programs for those who smoke in a bid to help them quit. The aim of such legislations and programs is to: reduce smoking initiation, increase stopping, and reduce second-hand smoke. The tobacco tax in New Zealand which is a health protecting policy has brought lots of difference as the rate at which youths smoked dropped from smoking had significantly decreased by 8% from 14% by 2005 (Wilson, & Thomson, 2005).

Conclusion And Recommendations

Tobacco when used as the manufacturer intends, is the only consumer product that kills half of its users. When one smokes, they inhale more than 4000 chemicals which include ammonia- toilet cleaner, acetone- paint stripper, cyanide- rat killer, carbon monoxide- car exhaust fumes, and DDT- insecticide (By,  & Jacobs, n.d). These chemicals they also exhale and non-smokers near them consequently inhale as well. That is why the smoking addiction is a deadly affair that New Zealand needs to keeping working hard to deal with by educating people more and more on the health effects of smoking, by implementing smoking regulatory policies, and improving the availability and accessibility of cessation programs.

To reduce the environmental pollution caused by the second-hand smoke, also a cause of the ailing health of so many people, the government should take stern steps. One of these steps would be to prohibit smoking in public places and put in place a fine or jail term for those who bend such a law. The other step would be to set apart smoking zones where those who smoke can do it from instead of putting others in danger. Smoking addiction leads to the demise of fifteen people daily in New Zealand, and many more people live unhealthy lives due to diseases that emanate from tobacco use and from second-hand smoke and it is, therefore, a major problem.

References

By, D., & Jacobs, M. FROM THE FIRST TO THE LAST ASH: The History, Economics & Hazards of Tobacco. Print.

Goel, R. K., & Nelson, M. A. (2006). The effectiveness of Anti?Smoking legislation: A review. Journal of Economic Surveys, 20(3), 325-355. Print.

Hill, S., Blakely, T., Howden-Chapman, P. (2003). Smoking Inequalities: Policies and Patterns Use of Tobacco in New Zealand. 1981 to 1996. Wellington: Ministry of Health. Print.

Hill, S., Kawachi, I., Blakely, T., & Woodward, A. (2004). Mortality Among “Never Smokers” Living With Smokers: Two Cohort Studies, 1981-4 And 1996-9. Bmj, 328(7446), 988-989. Print.

Harris, R., Tobias, M., Jeffreys, M., Waldegrave, K., Karlsen, S., & Nazroo, J. (2006). Racism And Health: The Relationship Between Experience Of Racial Discrimination And Health In New Zealand. Social science & medicine, 63(6), 1428-1441. Print.

Laugesen, M. (2000). Tobacco Statistics 2000. Wellington: Cancer Society of New Zealand. Print.

Peto, R., Lopez, A. D., Thun, M., & Boreham, J. (2012). Mortality from Smoking in Developed Countries 1950–2005 (Or Later). Population, 251351(103074), 112996. Print.

Vineis, P., Alavanja, Fontham, E., M., Buffler, P.,  Franceschi, S., Gao, Y. T., ... & Sitas, F. (2004). Tobacco and Cancer: Recent Epidemiological Evidence. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 96(2), 99-106. Print.

Wilson, G. A., Field, A. P., & Wilson, N. (2001). Smoke Gets In Your Eyes:  Visual Impairment and Smoking in New Zealand. The New Zealand Medical Journal, 114(1142), 471-474. Print.

Wilson, N., & Thomson, G. (2005). Tobacco Tax as a Health Protection Policy: A Review Of The New Zealand Evidence. NZ Med J, 118(1213), U1403. Print.

World Health Organization, n.d. Why Is Tobacco A Public Health Priority? Tobacco Free Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/tobacco/health_priority/en/print.html.

Woodward, A., & Laugesen, M. (2001). Morbidity Attributed To Second Hand Cigarette Smoke in New Zealand. Report to the Ministry Of Health.