by Silvana Rueda
According to the American Lung Association, as many as 6,000 adolescents under the age of 18 start smoking each day, amounting to 800,000 new adolescent smokers annually. We’re all familiar with the typical psychosocial influences on adolescents (peer pressure, parental influences, advertising, etc), which lead to tobacco experimentation, but recent studies shed light on a new biological reason behind teen smoking and cigarette addiction. According to a study by the UC Irvine Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC), the rewarding effects of nicotine have a greater response in the adolescent brain than in the adult brain. Furthermore, researchers also discovered that the first exposure to nicotine produces a greater subsequent behavioral response in adolescents than in adults.
In a study reported on by Science Daily, James Belluzzi and Frances Leslie, tested adult and adolescent rats in controlled environments, monitoring the reinforcing effects of nicotine. The animals were put in a cage with two distinct chambers, one of which exposed them to nicotine; not surprisingly, the rats preferred the chamber in which they would receive the rewarding drug. Researchers also discovered that nicotine reinforcement was greatest in adolescent rats. Following one brief exposure to nicotine, researched noticed extreme motor excitation and increased physical activity in adolescent rats, compared to adult rats.
Nicotine functions like any other addictive drug – by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, in the part of the brain which regulates rewards. By activating this area and increasing levels of dopamine in the brain’s reward circuits, nicotine produces feelings of pleasure in the smoker. Other properties of nicotine include the rapid distribution of the drug through the brain; nicotine levels peak within 10 seconds of inhalation, stimulating dopamine release. However, within a few minutes the acute effects of nicotine disappear, including the associated feelings of pleasure, causing the smoker to continue using the drug, to maintain the drug’s pleasurable effects.
These properties are what make nicotine a very addictive substance. And this research indicates that nicotine is even more addictive for adolescents than adults, which helps explain why approximately 90% of smokers begin smoking before the age of 21, according to the American Lung Association. Clearly, the danger lies in cigarette experimentation; once adolescents experiment with smoking, they’ll be more likely to get addicted than adults. Such information promotes the fact that even more emphasis should be placed on discouraging adolescents from smoking. That first cigarette is no longer as innocuous as it once seemed.
The statistics in this post about nicotine are really horrifying. The idea that 6,000 people who can’t even legally buy cigarettes begin smoking each day is a really disturbing fact. No one in my immediate family smokes, but my mother did smoke while she was in college. However, when research indicated how incredibly bad nicotine is for your health, she forced herself to stop. She always is puzzled to learn how many teenagers smoke. Why would they start smoking if they know how awful it is for them?
The biggest reason for this is propaganda. We don’t even realize how many ads for smoking we see every day, whether they be on television or in magazines or on billboards or buses. They are everywhere. It’s not just adults seeing these ads either; it is young and impressionable children. Nine year olds see these advertisements and are at the very least going to be curious about smoking cigarettes. Atlantic editor Charles W. Morton talks in an article about smoking about how American society pressures everyone to smoke. He states in the article, “The propaganda for cigarettes on the airwaves is transcribed ecstasy on a 24-hour basis….Don’t miss the fun of smoking. Smoke real. Smoke modern. Smoking is a pleasure. Togetherness. Be a real American. Come along with the rest of us. Don’t be an outsider.”(Atlantic Monthly Group, 2006) These are the messages that the media of our country is sending to people, and it is causing an outrageous number of smokers in our country. An estimated 25.1 million men (23.4 percent) and 20.9 million women (18.5 percent) in the United States smoke cigarettes. (National Center for Health Statistics, 2004) The worst part is that it all starts when people are adolescents. A third of all smokers started smoking before age 14, and ninety percent of all smokers had their first cigarette before they hit 21. Is it just a coincidence that the younger, more impressionable people that watch the most television and read the most magazines are the ones who start smoking? (Mowery PD, Brick PD, Farrelly MC, National Youth Tobacco Survey, October 2000) Some people would like to believe so, but experimental evidence has indicated otherwise.
Comment by Carolyn Crampton — October 7, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
Being a teenager involves having to deal with the constant battle with peer pressure, with smoking being one of the more common ones. Remember the countless offers of just “one puff” you received as a child or teen? Most people think that if it is just one puff than it can not do much harm. See that’s where you might be wrong. According to a study done by the authors of Pediatrics magazine, , it was concluded , based on the experiment completed, that post-inhale relaxation which is felt during the initial puff of the cigarette, can lead to a dependence and habit of smoking even in young children. The study involved 217 sixth graders with a history of tobacco, who were then questioned and interviewed to determine their tobacco dependence. Of the 29% of the teenagers who recalled a relaxation feeling from the first puff, approximately 67% became dependent. This initial relaxation feeling gives the young smoker a good feeling that he or she may wish to continue to feel. The nicotine in cigarettes stimulates the release of norepinephrine and dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter meant to give a pleasurable feeling and is released from the substantia nigra. This is one of the main contributors to having the relaxed feeling.
Like most experiments, there are certain flaws in this study. One of these flaws is that it is difficult to control other variables in this experiment that may affect the subject. For example, if one of the participants is usually around smokers or if there parents are smokers, then they are probably more susceptible to becoming smokers themselves. The experimenter would have to make sure that either all of the kids’ parents are smokers or non-smokers. All in all, the experiment is still accurate enough to provide us with this information that should initiate some type of action to prevent the future generation from becoming dependents of tobacco.
So the next question is what do we do about the situation? One proposal is to educate young teenagers about the dangers of smoking and how addictive it can be. I think it is important for middle school health teachers to stress this topic in the class and to discuss how all it takes is one puff to become addictive. In addition, according to the Illinois Department of Health and Education, “approximately 90 percent of all smokers start before age 18; the average age for a new smoker is 13,” . Education is the best method to combat the rising number of young smokers and the decreasing age of the average new smoker.
References
Illinois Department of Health and Education, http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hbsmoke.htm.
Mozes,Allen (2007). First Puff Can Turn Kids Into Smokers: Study. New York: ScoutNews.
Comment by Carlos Masmela — October 10, 2007 @ 9:17 pm
Drug and alcohol abuse teaching starts at a very young age in public schools now, but it is still a large problem. Although the effectiveness of these programs can be debated, it can not be debated that something needs to be done about the problem. The type of programming changes as those who it’s directed at get older. For instance in elementary school, students are taught how to say no. But as they get older, they learn more about the effects of drugs.
In my high school, we quite frequently learned about nicotine and alcohol as gateway drugs, meaning that starting the use of these drugs early in life led to more stronger drug use later in life. The evidence is clear that this is true. “In 2002, the National Survey on Druge Use and Health reported roughly half of youths aged 12 to 17 who smoked cigarettes in the past month also used an illicit drug, whereas only 6.2 percent of nonsmoking youths reported using and illicit drug in the past month” (Zickler, 2004). Is this just because people become bored with what they are doing and would like to try something new or is there more to it? Or is it because those who smoke cigarettes are risk takers and would be more involved with addictive drugs.
There might even be a different answer. In a 2004 study, it was shown that “early exposure to nicotine may heighten response to other addictive drugs” (Zickler, 2004). The study involved using adolescent and adult rats. Some of the rats had a nicotine pretreatment and others did not. After this, all of the rats were then exposed to cocaine. The adolescent rats who had the nicotine pretreatment were more sensitive to cocaine’s effects than any other group (Zickler, 2004).
So since there is now scientific evidence of the truth behind “gateway drugs”, maybe this should be included in drug and alcohol education for teens. All I know is that nicotine addiction is a large problem for adolescents and needs to be combated in some way.
References:
Zickler, Patrick. (July 2004).Early Nicotine Initiation Increases Severity of Addiction, Vulnerability to Some Effects of Cocaine. National Institute on Drug Abuse Notes, Volume 19 Number 2. Retrieved October 11, 2007 from http://nida.nih.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol19N2/Early.html
Comment by Lisa Goldberg — October 11, 2007 @ 10:31 am
Previous comments have done a great job of summarizing the well-known risks of smoking and the roles ads, peer pressure, etc. play in pushing teens to start the habit. I’d like to cover a lesser-known risk of smoking as well as some possible contributing factors, and bring attention to both future methods of deterring teens from smoking.
While the risks of smoking involving lung cancer and detrimental effects on most of the body’s organs have been well publicized, an issue that has recently come to light in relation to smoking is later suicide risk as related to adolescent smoking. A Finnish study published early in 2007 found boys who were regular smokers by age 14 became four times as likely to commit suicide by age 34 than their peers who were nonsmokers (1). The researchers noted that “cigarette smoking has been shown to lower serotonin levels, and reduced amounts of this brain chemical have been tied to both depression and aggression,” providing a possible explanation for the link between smoking and suicide.
Although cigarette ads have been banned from radio and television since January 2, 1986 (2), and is removed from classroom copies of Time, People, Sports Illustrated, and Newsweek (3), subtle advertising for both tobacco and other drugs may come from other sources. A 2007 study of hundreds of popular hit songs found that “one in three mention alcohol or drug use” (4). Although the study did not include a look at the link between lyrics and behavior, we can hypothesize that the exposure to idolized artists’ mentions of tobacco and other drugs may push some teens to try these drugs.
Lastly, since only one-fifth of smoking treatment participants who quit short-term were able to quit for the long-term, keeping adolescents from even beginning smoking may be a worthwhile goal. Effective deterrence programs inform adolescents about the effects of smoking as well as peer, parent, and media influences; they also train participants in refusal skills through modeling and role-playing. Another vastly effective method of deterrence for those who are already smoking is raising the cost of cigarettes through a tax. Raising cigarette taxes is reported to cut consumption by 4% for each 10% rise in taxes; the effect is doubled in developing countries and with teenagers (Myers 2007). Since the target group for smoking prevention is in adolescents, a larger cigarette tax may be the way to go, especially as it would provide additional revenue that could be funneled towards smoking prevention programs.
An interesting side note: A recent study (5) found that “smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in terms of lung cancer risk”; that is, a connection between marijuana and lung cancer has now been established. Although the study was a small one that collected results from only 79 lung cancer patients, it is noteworthy for those considered smoking marijuana or those who are already regular users.
Reference:
Myers, David G. (2007), Psychology, 8th ed. New York: Worth Publishers.
Links:
Smoking and suicide (1):
reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL56416220070605?sp=true
Cigarette ad bans
from TV and radio (2): druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2b.htm
from classroom ed.s of magazines (3):
consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/tobacco_schools.html
Hit songs mention drugs (4):
reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN3134139920071109?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true
Marijuana and lung cancer (5):
reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSHKG104788
Comment by Chloe Wood — April 9, 2008 @ 12:16 am
I love looking through an article that will make people think.
Also, thanks for permitting me to comment!
Comment by effective ways to quit smoking — November 30, 2012 @ 11:01 pm