Control Smoking Market for Better Health & Environment

By Faten K. Alghamdi

Smoking is a practice of recreational drug use that is legal in the market for consumers.  Smoking brings harm to the health as well as to the environment.  Because the environment is shared by every living soul, it is important to keep it clean.  The carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide released by smokers affect the environment and has great impact.  Health implications of smoking include lung cancer, throat cancer, mouth diseases, heart diseases, and increased blood pressure.  According to researchers, 480,000 people lost their lives in USA with diseases caused by smoking.

Tobacco has gained popularity and became important for economy, but because of the danger of tobacco use in our health, and the impact on environment, researchers are proving the reduction in smoking as a result of raising price of tobacco sales.  Health complications of smoking lead to the same fate of using drugs like smoking crack, or marijuana.   Because of the easy access to buy tobacco and low price, more people are likely to smoke.  Smoking is considered recreational, but addiction is what keeps people make it a habit. 

Researchers consider many strategies that they believe are helpful in reducing number of smokers.  One strategy is to apply Tobacco taxes to raise tobacco prices which are thought to be the most effective control to limit access to tobacco.  Another strategy is to apply a minimum price on tobacco product to eliminate use of coupons and discounts on purchases of tobacco.  There are many approaches to control sales of tobacco, but these are believed to be effective to reduce number of smokers and make tobacco less appealing for youth to explore.

Reference

McLaughlin, I., Pearson, A., Laird-Metke, E., Ribisl, K.: Reducing Tobacco Use and Access through Strengthened Minimum Price Laws.   American Journal of Public Health, 104.10: 1844-50.  October 2014.