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BIOSAFETY NEWS JUNE 2003

The dense, thick, pall of smoke billowing from the smouldering embers of the "underage smoking" debate are so thick and emotional that nobody seems able to see the real issue. This ‘smokescreen’ is deliberately maintained by the tobacco industry.

In a nutshell, this issue can be summed up by the statement - "there are no ifs or butts - cigarette smoking is bad."

But try telling this to young people who constantly see adults, some of them parents, smoking making them wonder: Why are we being told not to smoke? If it is a poison why are they smoking? Aren't they afraid of dying?

I grew up during the era of Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, John Wayne and others of their ilk. All had one thing in common. They played macho, tough, hard drinking and smoking characters, who always clobbered the bad guy, got the girl and rode off into the sunset, as the credits crawled across the screen to the blare of triumphant music.

It was on this basis that I tried my first cigarette (and alcoholic beverage) on arrival in form one at the ripe old age of 13 and all that merely to impress girls.

Many of my peers at this time thought the same way that only tough guys got girlfriends and tough guys had to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.

Almost thirty years down the line, I look back at that period of my life and cringe. That is until I remember that ones teenage years are a time of uncertainty, changes, hormone fluctuations, mood swings, menstrual periods, breaking voices, facial hair growth. Its a time of wanting to be and wondering whether one is accepted in peer groups. Trying desperately to fit in and bucking against parental reins.

Nonconformity, I remember, was the order of the day. Afro hairdos, bell-bottoms or flared trousers and platform shoes. For those brave enough there was an earring. But the crown on all this was the conspicuous, ever-present, confidently flicked cigarette.

Rebelliousness

Almost all my peers who still smoke today started at around the same time; that is those who have not quit. Many have. Majority of those who have not are trying, some for over a decade, to stop.

This too is the age of rebelliousness and experimentation. Trying to be older than you are are. It is the I-am-not-a-child-any-more age.

True one is not a child any more, but neither is one an adult. You are trapped in that never - never land in between, - a place whose occupants are called teenagers.

Now we come to the crux of the matter. This hapless group called teenagers lay the foundation for their adult smoking years and subsequent ill health (from minor ailments to death) during this period.

Teenagers suffer from another major handicap and that is feeling infallible or invincible. There is something in the make-up of youth which makes them feel indestructible. It could be that during this period they are just coming into their own and realising the infinite possibilities and options that lie ahead.

All these options of course, do not encompass pain, disease and - God forbid! - death. This is the kind of thing that only happen to old people in the distant future. Too far ahead to bother with now. As a teenager you are unbwogable.

They, therefore, do what I usually describe as "investing heavily and whole-heartedly for a disease-ridden future."

This is because you do not smoke today and get cancer tomorrow.

Hooked

I remember during my early high school years, scraping my face sore as I "shaved" in an attempt to get my beard and moustache to grow quicker. Beware of what you wish for.

This then is the age at which most people will experiment and become hooked on the nicotine in cigarettes. Very few people start smoking after their teenage years. This fact is so well documented, that I get confused when I see British American Tobacco (BAT) solemnly stating without batting an eyelid that they are campaigning against underage smoking.

How, I wonder, will they stay in business if the youth stop smoking? All they will have left then if this scenario occurs is the already smoking adult population. But this segment alone cannot sustain the tobacco industry as daily they are giving up smoking with numbers of the remaining group dying as a result of cigarette smoking-related illnesses.

According to a 1999 World Bank paper, Curbing the epidemic: Governments and the economics of Tobacco Control a shocking statistic emerges. "Smoking is growing in popularity on a global basis, fueled by 80,000 - 100,000 young people who become regular (my emphasis) smokers every day." This means that most become addicted to nicotine either as children or teenagers.

Does this mean that tobacco companies BAT included intentionally target the under-18 market?

Litigation in the united States of America led to the release of millions of pages of internal documents of these companies which were placed on the Internet. Browsing through these papers reveals thousands of startling to facts hitherto kept under wraps, which concerning youth smoking can be best illustrated by the following two examples.

In Some Thoughts About New Brands of Cigarettes for the Youth Market by a C. Teague Jr. of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, put down on the 2nd of February 1973, this youth-targeting is brought to the fore:-
"A new brand aimed at the young smoker must somehow become the 'in' brand and its promotion should emphasise togetherness, belonging and group acceptance, while at the same time emphasising individuality and 'doing one's own thing."

Then it proceeds on the premise, "The teens and early twenties are periods of intense psychological stress, restlessness, and boredom. Many socially awkward situations are encountered. The minute or two required to stop and light a cigarette, ask for a light, find an ash tray, and the like provide something to do during periods of awkwardness and boredom."

Even as far back as the '60s T. Osdene of Phillip Morris wrote about reasons for smoking in Why One Smokes, First Draft, 1969.' It was almost like a blueprint for me to use five years later in form one. Osdene wrote:
"The first cigarette is a noxious experience to the noviate. To account for the fact that the beginning smoker will tolerate unpleasantness we must invoke a psychology motive. Smoking a cigarette for a beginner is a symbolic act. I am no longer my mother's child, I'm tough, I am an adventurer, I'm not square. Whatever the individual intent, the act of smoking remains a symbolic declaration of personal identity."

Then comes the rider. "As the force from the psychological symbolism subsides, the pharmacological effect takes over to sustain the habit."

In other words by the time you are thinking about stopping this experimentation and forgetting about cigarettes altogether you realise you cannot as the extremely addictive nicotine has got you hooked.

Since we have seen that they blatantly target young people, why do the cigarette manufacturers apparently campaign against youth smoking?

I cannot put it more succinctly than the Ted Bates advertising agency of New York who said in part:
"In the young smokers mind, a cigarette falls into the same category with wine, beer, shaving, wearing a bra (or purposely not wearing one), declaration of independence, and striving for self - identity."

Protect

These are the facts, albeit the tip of the cigarette seen through the billowing, pungent 'smokescreen'. But enough to show that the rest of the cigarette being dangled in front of our youth does exist.

What this boils down to is the time for clever semantics and obfuscation is over. It is time to act. The health of our children depends on what we do or don't do. If we cannot protect them from cigarettes with all the evidence at hand, what then can we protect them from?

I smoked for 27 years and was lucky to get off lightly - with asthma! As a result one lesson which was indelibly seared onto my brain was underage or overage - when it comes to cigarettes there are no ifs or butts they are bad. Period!

David Ogot is a freelance journalist/producer who has personal experience with alcoholism. He can be reached at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com