Smoking – Axis I Center of Barnwell

Advertising and Its Influence on Substance Use

admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 11:27:01 +0000

Advertising plays a significant role in shaping attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs, particularly among young people who are still developing their sense of identity and decision-making skills. Alcohol, tobacco, and vaping industries invest heavily in marketing strategies designed to make substance use appear normal, exciting, and socially acceptable. Through colorful visuals, catchy slogans, celebrity endorsements, and social media influences, these messages often associate substance use with happiness, success, and stress relief. Over time, repeated exposure can lower perceptions of risk and increase curiosity, making experimentation seem harmless or even expected.

The influence of advertising becomes even more concerning when young people are exposed to these messages before they have the cognitive maturity to fully evaluate long-term consequences. Many advertisements downplay health risks while emphasizing independence, popularity, and belonging, things that are especially meaningful during adolescence. Even warning labels are often overshadowed by the appeal of the imagery itself. Media literacy, therefore, is a critical prevention strategy. Teaching individuals to question what they see, recognize persuasive tactics, and understand the intent behind advertising helps reduce its impact. When communities encourage critical thinking and awareness, they empower people to make informed, healthy choices rather than being driven by carefully crafted marketing messages.

What Can We Do?

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 04:40:00 +0000

Start Conversations: Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors about the dangers of secondhand smoke. Awareness is the first step toward prevention.

Set Clear Boundaries: Create smoke-free zones at home, in your car, and at family gatherings. Encourage others to step outside and away from non-smokers if they choose to smoke.

Support Smoke-Free Policies: Advocate for tobacco- and marijuana-free public parks, playgrounds, schools, and housing. These policies protect everyone and send a clear message to youth.

Be a Role Model: If you don’t smoke, stay strong in your decision. If you do, consider quitting—not just for your health, but for the people around you. There’s help available.

Educate Youth: Let young people know the truth: Secondhand smoke is dangerous, and the “cool factor” wears off when health is at stake. Peer influence is powerful; let’s use it to encourage prevention.

Why Prevention Matters

admin — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 04:39:00 +0000

Children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to develop asthma, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Teens who grow up around smokers are more likely to become smokers themselves.
Marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, contains toxic and cancer-causing chemicals. Secondhand smoke can affect brain development in youth and impair attention and memory.
Vaping indoors or in cars still affects everyone nearby—even if there’s no flame.

What is Secondhand Smoke?

admin — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 04:38:00 +0000

Secondhand smoke is the smoke exhaled by a smoker or released from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, pipe, or marijuana joint. It contains over 7,000 chemicals—hundreds are toxic, and about 70 can cause cancer. And guess what? Even vape aerosol isn’t just “harmless water vapor.” It contains nicotine, heavy metals, and other harmful substances.

“Clear the Air This Summer: Preventing the Hidden Dangers of Secondhand Smoke”

admin — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 04:37:00 +0000

June is for Fresh Starts—Let’s Make the Air Cleaner for Everyone. As summer kicks off in June, families and friends come together for barbecues, pool parties, and outdoor celebrations. But while we enjoy the sunshine and fresh air, it’s important to be mindful of something that can quietly impact on everyone’s health.

Whether it’s from cigarettes, marijuana, or even vapes, secondhand smoke is more than just a nuisance, it’s a real health risk. June is a great time to shine a light on prevention, especially when it comes to protecting our most vulnerable—children, seniors, and those with respiratory issues.

Exposure to toxic chemicals and other harmful ingredients

admin — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 18:57:00 +0000

Vapes contain a number of chemicals, metals and ultrafine particles that are poisonous when they are heated to form an aerosol and then inhaled. For example carcinogens have been found in the metals that appear in the e-liquids and aerosols, primarily from chromium and nickel and, to a lesser extent, from cadmium, lead, and arsenic. Because of their chemical makeup, certain popular flavors – such as cinnamon, vanilla, butter, and mint – are especially harmful. Research shows that when chemical flavorings for vanilla, cherry, citrus and cinnamon mingle with solvents such as polypropylene glycol and glycerol, they create new compounds called acetals, which are linked to irritation and inflammation of delicate lung tissue. So even if a bottle or pod of e-juice is labeled with its ingredients, a person vaping may not know exactly what they are inhaling. Although some of the flavoring chemicals have been deemed safe when eating or drinking, once they are heated to produce an aerosol, they form additional harmful compounds that can cause lung damage. There also is evidence that some metals and other components of vape can seep into the e-liquid and enter the lungs during the heating and inhalation process, causing lung damage ranging from mild to severe, and in some cases, cancer.

Cigarette smoking

admin — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 18:53:30 +0000

Teens and young adults who vape are significantly more likely than those who do not vape – about four times as likely – to end up smoking traditional cigarettes. This is true of young people who never smoked cigarettes and had no intention of, likelihood to or interest in doing so. In addition teens who used e-cigarettes but never marijuana are at 2-4 times higher odds of trying marijuana. Strong and consistent research also shows that vaping is not a safe or reliable way to quit smoking. For many people, vaping can actually make it more difficult to quit smoking.

Hooking a New Generation

admin — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 18:50:15 +0000

The tobacco industry needs to replace older smokers.

Like cigarette companies, vape companies have focused their efforts on young people. Why? Getting a person to start as a teen can make a lifetime customer. It’s well known among health professionals and the tobacco industry alike that adolescence is the peak period to

develop addiction.

Most adult smokers started smoking during adolescence, with 90% of adult smokers starting before the age of 18. Nearly all people with nicotine addiction begin smoking before age 21.

During the teen and young adult years, the brain is undergoing significant changes. Teen brains are becoming more efficient and developing critical thinking skills. Exposure to any addictive product,

including nicotine or marijuana, at an early age makes the brain more susceptible to the continued use of the product and addiction.

By planting the seeds for nicotine addiction as early as possible, the tobacco industry has a tremendous incentive to bring its decades of experience and insights into how best to hook young people on nicotine and hide the harms associated with the nicotine product.

What Types of Problems Should I Report to the FDA?

admin — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 18:48:44 +0000

What Types of Problems Should I Report to the FDA?

FDA is interested in reports from consumers, manufacturers, clinical investigators, and health professionals about tobacco products that:

are damaged
are defective
are contaminated
smell or taste wrong

FDA wants to know if you have experienced undesired health or quality problems that you believe may have been caused by use of a particular tobacco product. FDA also wants to know about undesired health or quality problems that may have been caused by being exposed to a tobacco product, even if you were not the user.

These types of health or quality problems could include:

overheating, fires, explosions, or burns
seizures or other serious nervous system issues
toxic or allergic reactions
an unusual problem in a long-time user
foreign material in the product
problems with packaging, labeling or product parts

Cigars, Cigarillos, Little Filtered Cigars

admin — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 18:46:05 +0000

A cigar is a roll of tobacco wrapped in leaf tobacco or in a substance that contains tobacco. Most cigars are combustible tobacco products. They vary in size—from smaller cigars, such as little filtered cigars or cigarillos, to larger ones, such as large so-called premium cigars.

Cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes and cigar smoke is at least as toxic as cigarette smoke, if not more. Large cigars can deliver as much as 10 times the nicotine, two times the tar, and more than five times the carbon monoxide of a filtered cigarette.

There are cigar products available on the market that resemble cigarettes in size and shape but are labeled as “little cigars” or “filtered cigars.” Little filtered cigars as well as cigarillos might contain candy or fruit flavors that appeal to adolescents and young adults. In addition, young adults may think that cigars are less addictive and present fewer health risks than cigarettes, but cigars may be worse.