cigarette advertising should be banned essay

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Tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship ban adoption: A pilot study of the reporting challenges faced by low- and middle-income countries

Arsenios tselengidis.

1 Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

2 Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom

Sarah Dance

Sally adams.

3 Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Becky Freeman

4 Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Jo Cranwell

Associated data.

The data supporting this research can be found in the Supplementary file.

INTRODUCTION

The WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) Secretariat has identified issues with Article 13 (Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship) Party policy progress reporting, whilst some researchers remain skeptical of the completeness and accuracy of the data collected as part of the required reporting questionnaire. Gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges encountered when completing these questionnaires could provide insights to improve WHO FCTC progress reporting.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted between January and June 2021, with nine national tobacco control focal point (NFP) individuals (designates who report on WHO FCTC implementation on the Party’s behalf) from low- and middle-income countries. The study analysis used a thematic framework approach involving data familiarization, thematic framework construction, indexing and refining, mapping and interpretation of the results.

The analysis generated four themes: 1) use of different resources, 2) presence of compounding complexities, 3) use of supporting mechanisms employed for tackling the challenges, and 4) recommendations for refinements within the questionnaire and for those completing it.

CONCLUSIONS

The WHO FCTC reporting questionnaire needs improvements that could be piloted and discussed between the Convention Secretariat and the Parties prior to wide scale implementation.

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) 1 is one of the most universally adopted global treaties, covering more than 90% of the global population 2 . Amongst its provisions, it requires the Parties (WHO member states that have ratified the Convention) to comprehensively ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship (TAPS) (Article 13) and to biennially report their implementation progress to the WHO FCTC Secretariat (Article 21) 1 – the administrative body responsible for assisting the Parties to fulfil their obligations under the Convention.

Under Article 13 (tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship) 1 , Parties have six main obligations: prohibit deceptive promotion of tobacco products; comprehensively ban TAPS in the media; put health warnings on all TAPS; prohibit tobacco sponsorship of international events and/or the participation therein; restrict direct or indirect incentives encouraging tobacco product purchase; and, in case of a non-comprehensive ban adoption, require the disclosure to the governmental authorities of the tobacco industry’s expenditures on TAPS not yet prohibited.

Under Article 21 (reporting and exchange of information) 1 , Parties are required to report their implementation progress to the FCTC Secretariat, through the biennial submission of a report. In 2020, the Secretariat has enhanced the submission process with supporting materials, such as webinars 3 , step-by-step instructions 4 and videos 5 guiding each step of the reporting process. From the Parties’ individual reports, the Secretariat then prepares the ‘Global Progress Report on Implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’ 6 , and submits it for consideration to the Conference of the Parties (the Convention’s governing body).

The report submitted by the Parties consists of a questionnaire, with sixteen questions referring to TAPS (thematic group C27) ( Table 1 ). However, the TAPS section has a number of data entry issues 7 - 10 . The WHO FCTC Secretariat has reported 10 that some of the Parties complete both the comprehensive ban questions (C271–C272) and the questions referring only to partial advertising restrictions (C273–C2711), which contradicts the step-by-step instructions, which suggest that the latter should be completed only when comprehensive TAPS bans are not present 4 . Additionally, amongst the Parties which have a comprehensive ban, a number give negative replies to some of the following ban sub-questions on media types covered by the ban (C272) 10 , which suggests that the Parties’ definition of ‘comprehensiveness’ varies 11 . Furthermore, some researchers 7 - 9 are skeptical of the accuracy of the reports, as the data submitted are contingent on the Parties’ selective progress reporting 7 , the assessment is more nuanced than the data suggest 8 , 9 , and is not externally validated 8 . They also criticize the reported information as being discrepant with the existing situation, due to reporting of unrealistic policy changes in short time-periods or to under-recording of existing policies 7 .

Simplified printed * version of the WHO-FCTC questionnaire section focused on Article 13 (tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship)

WHO FCTC: World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

In an effort to improve reporting, other databases have been examined 7 , 8 , 12 , such as the WHO’s Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic (MPOWER report) 13 , bespoke assessment tools have been created (e.g. Tobacco Control Scale, WHO MPOWER tobacco control score) 14 , 15 or assessments with triangulated information have been conducted 9 , 16 . These alternatives have limitations too, such as the MPOWER report’s susceptiveness to both subjectivity and social desirability biases of the national experts who provide the scores 12 , 17 , and the subjectivity of the bespoke assessment tools during the scoring process 14 .

The FCTC’s reporting approach may not provide an accurate reflection of the actual policy landscape. Nevertheless, creating a new system for assessing TAPS policy adoption to the WHO FCTC standard would create an additional administrative burden for both the Convention Secretariat and the Parties. Identifying ways to improve the existing reporting tool may be more time and cost effective.

This pilot study evaluates the WHO FCTC questionnaire in terms of facilitating the Parties to fully capture the implementation of Article 13. To achieve this, we recruited and interviewed WHO FCTC national focal points (NFPs – individuals working as communication entry points between the Convention Secretariat and the Parties, designated also with the task to complete the WHO FCTC questionnaire on the Party’s behalf). Our study’s aim was to gain a deeper understanding of the completion process followed by the NFPs and of the challenges encountered during the completion of the WHO FCTC questionnaire section that captures the implementation of Article 13. The findings of this investigation could become valuable for the FCTC Secretariat, the representatives participating in the Conference of the Parties, the administrative personnel of the governmental tobacco control units, as well as the researchers using FCTC data on tobacco control implementation, and the tobacco control advocates seeking opportunities to support their government in monitoring the WHO FCTC implementation and its reporting.

Study design and participants

We conducted qualitative one-to-one interviews with NFPs from low- and middle-income countries. Assessing the TAPS policy implementation in low- and middle-income countries (as those are encountering FCTC implementation challenges due to prioritization to other infectious diseases, the weaker legislative systems and the high reliance on international donor funds) 18 - 20 and their reporting to the FCTC Secretariat, dictated purposive sampling of NFPs from this income group. The latter was identified with the use of the World Bank’s 2020 income country classification 21 , and the list of the FCTC Parties 2 .

In January 2021, the FCTC Secretariat facilitated our approach via an e-mail invitation to all NFPs from this group (n=81). The participation criteria were: being the individual who completed the FCTC questionnaire, having English-language competency, being employed as an NFP during the period of the interview, having access to a computer and Internet connection on the day of the interview, being available for an interview between January and March of 2021, and providing participation consent.

Due to low initial response (n=2), we prolonged the data collection period until June 2021, and sent a personalized invitation to 32 NFPs. These were proposed by the FCTC Secretariat due to their past close collaboration. As no further interest was expressed, we grouped the invitations of the 32 NFPs per WHO Region and we incentivized them by highlighting the opportunity to raise a voice for that Region. Another 8 NFPs then expressed their interest, but only 6 completed the consent form and scheduled an interview date. One NFP requested to conduct the interview in a written format, and this was granted. For the remaining 25 NFPs, 5 initially agreed to participate but later the communication was discontinued, one was relocated to another governmental department, one declined participation and 18 never followed up the communication attempts. We concluded the recruitment process in mid June 2021.

A total of 9 NFPs participated in the pilot study. The majority were males (67%), aged 31–54 years (mean: 44.7). They represented at least one WHO Region (two from each of Africa, Americas, and Europe, and one from each of Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and Western Pacific) and their experience of completing the FCTC questionnaire ranged 2–11 years (mean: 5.6). Eight of the participants agreed to participate in a one-to-one interview of duration 30–60 minutes (average: 49) and one participant, due to language barriers and heavy daily workload, answered the interview guide in a written format.

Data collection

The lead author carried out one-to-one, semi-structured interviews with all consenting participants. The interview guide (Supplementary file) was first pilot-tested with a former WHO regional employee with FCTC related responsibilities. The first section of the guide covered the participant’s role as an NFP (e.g. task responsibilities, training and instructions received), while the second was a cognitive interview evaluating the meanings and processes used by the participants to answer each of the FCTC questions. The participants were also provided with the opportunity to document any encountering challenges, both for individual questions and for the overall questionnaire, and to suggest improvements for future FCTC questionnaire versions. All interviews were conducted via Microsoft Teams, audio recorded via a digital dictaphone, transcribed, and then anonymized.

Data analysis

A thematic framework analysis approach 22 was used to analyze the data. The first two authors conducted the analysis through an iterative process of five main stages. The first stage of the analysis involved data familiarization by again listening to the audio-recorded interviews and reading all the interview transcripts, to obtain a broad overview of the participants’ responses. At the second stage, the first two authors compiled a list of topics emerging from the interviews (see analytical process in Supplementary file). Thereafter, they returned to the transcriptions, and independently made the identified topics more descriptive (see initial categories and themes in Supplementary file). The two authors met again to discuss them and to form the initial thematic framework (coding index). At the third stage, the two researchers independently applied the index to all transcripts using NVivo software, version 12. The researchers, following discussions, summarized the coded data under refined categories and synthesized the final themes (Supplementary file). This process set up the final analytical Framework ( Table 2 ). At the fourth stage, the two authors independently applied the Framework to all transcripts to ensure its validity, and then discussed and resolved any discrepancies. Following this step, they charted the data in a matrix, with the main themes allocated to each row on the chart and each transcript assigned to a specific column (see full matrix in Supplementary file). The two authors used this matrix to identify the differences and similarities across transcripts and within themes. At the final stage, any identified patterns between the themes and categories were discussed amongst the first two authors, interpreted 22 in the context of the reported criticism 7 - 9 of the FCTC’s reporting process and then discussed in this manuscript. Throughout the analysis, the authors iteratively reflected on the original data and the previous analytical stages, to ensure the study participants’ views were represented and to reduce the possibility of misinterpretation. This pilot study was reported according to the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) (Supplementary file) 23 .

Final analytical framework of the interviews conducted with national focal points from low- and middle-income countries in 2021, with examples of the identified themes and categories

FCTC: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The analysis generated four themes: 1) use of different resources, 2) presence of compounding complexities, 3) use of supporting mechanisms employed for tackling the challenges, and 4) recommendations for refinements within the questionnaire and recommendations for those completing it ( Table 2 ).

Use of different resources

The TAPS section of the FCTC questionnaire includes three groups of questions. For the first two groups of questions (adoption and implementation of a comprehensive ban, and existence of TAPS restrictions), most participants based their answers on the content and language of the national legislation. Respectively for the latter group of questions (cooperation existence with other Parties, and utilization of the FCTC’s Guidelines), the participants drew from their own knowledge and experience when providing their answers. However, the resources used for the completion of the first two question groups was different amongst participants. Three participants (of the total nine) did not use the national legislation or when they did, they added supplementary approaches. Namely, as part of their answers’ justification, they used the TAPS compliance related information, or consulted the previous submitted reports and updated them according to any new adopted legislation or new TAPS surveillance data, whilst one participant used their own experience for completing the questions:

‘… so I used my experience from filling similar questionnaires.’ (NFP, 1839)

The differences could be explained by the questionnaire completion instructions. The FCTC Secretariat provides relevant instructions on its website 4 , 5 , nevertheless participants did not mention using it. One participant avoided it due to the already existing administration burden:

‘... I do not want to lie. I do not do that. Because I have a lot of things under…’ (NFP, 1239)

Instead, the participants chose other methods. They mentioned learning the process either directly from others (e.g. trained by the predecessor) or indirectly (e.g. own completion experience, attending FCTC’s knowledge exchange seminars) or by combining their own understanding of the completion process with their predecessors’ instructions.

Some study participants had support from a tobacco control team, while a few worked alone. All participants reported liaising with others (e.g. from other ministries, tobacco control committees, parliamentarians) for consultation purposes during the completion process; nevertheless the legislation content was always prioritized for answer justification over these consultations. In rare occasions of a disagreement during the questionnaire completion, the solution was found via team discussions, negotiations with policymakers or by training the individuals from the other agencies on Article 13:

‘I … consult my team for providing a particular answer within the report. If there [are any] disagreements among the team for answering any particular question, I use [the] majority for resolving them ...’ (NFP, 1335)

Compounding complexities

The completion process is burdened by the pre-existing struggles accompanying the NFPs’ role (e.g. overwhelming workload, limited human capacity and resources available, plethora of received information and requests). Thus, the participants identified the reporting process, including the data collection and verification, as time burdensome and the timeframes set by the FCTC Secretariat as not always clear. As an NFP highlighted, this task could become even more challenging for novice NFPs with insufficient experience:

‘Many focal points … are changing [often]. If the new focal points … do not know what the Secretariat is, they do not know what the Convention is, they do not know what reporting is … it is impossible.’ (NFP, 614)

The complexities existing within the FCTC questionnaire do not ease the situation. During the interview, two questionnaire related barriers were identified. Firstly, the struggle to understand due to: a) language barriers, b) the question or legislation lack of clarity, and c) the unknown/unclear words existing within the questionnaire (e.g. definitions of the words ‘Parties’, ‘cooperation’, ‘brand stretching’). Whenever this struggle was encountered, participants provided their answers according to their own interpretation of the question or to the partial interpretation of the national legislation:

‘Cross-border advertising… It is not clear to me. What does it mean? Is it for the internet? What is the difference?’ (NFP, 614)

The second issue was the challenge of fitting the available information from the local legislation on the questionnaire’s binary (yes/no) available options. Some participants found it difficult to answer some questions, due to: a) the absence of requested information, b) legislative changes during the questionnaire completion period, or c) the multiple ways to interpret the questions which was influenced by available information:

‘So, I do not know in this context if I should answer “yes” or “no” ... what is the correct [answer].’ (NFP, 1839)

The participants overcame these barriers by using other non-health related legislations (in the case of a law’s absence) or guessing the most appropriate answer (yes/no) on the questionnaire based on the available information.

The two challenges are associated with the structure of the questionnaire. The current format of binary answers (yes/no) is restrictive. For example, whenever the legislation text or the survey’s question, or the results from the monitoring TAPS data, could be interpreted in multiple ways, the participants were forced to deploy their own interpretation about which option describes the legislative situation better:

‘So if your process is looking on the one but not the other, it can be “yes” to one and “no” to the other … There is a lot of information.’ (NFP, 1827)

Similarly, the format of the first question (C272), which cross-examines the existence of a comprehensive TAPS ban, created a dilemma for some participants, since a negative answer prevents from informing the FCTC Secretariat about the existence of some of the TAPS bans:

‘If I answer “no”, I will need to skip … the [section] C272 ... But within this block of questions there are questions that I can answer “yes”.’ (NFP, 1839)

The structure of the questionnaire also created some challenges in regard to the connection between some of the questions. This happened to the set of questions which asked about the existence of TAPS restrictions (questions C273–C2711). The first question (C273) asks about the existence of a constitution or constitutional principles precluding the adoption of comprehensive ban. However, all the following questions about the specific restrictions (C274–C2711) start with a dash and the restriction (e.g. ‘–applying restrictions on all TAPS?’):

‘My question is if there is a link between question C273 and C274 … I do not know … this is a bit tricky…’ (NFP, 1839)

Hence, some participants answered these questions based on the existence of constitutional precludes and not the existence of a restriction, as the FCTC Secretariat requests 4 . Similar instances, of missing the connection from the initial question occurred in the C272 sub-questions – which inquire about the TAPS ban coverage; as well as in C2712 and C2713 – which refer to the existence of cooperation with other countries for tackling cross-border advertising and the penalties for cross-border advertisements. Missing this connection, the participants could misunderstand the questions’ true aim and provide answers which did not necessarily represent the questioned legislative environment.

Supporting mechanisms

Despite these complexities, the informants also acknowledged mechanisms which made the questionnaire easier to be completed. The most significant mechanism was when a participant’s Party had integrated the FCTC’s Article 13 within the law and had the Article’s Guidelines translated and adapted to the local context, as reference to those documents made the completion process unchallenging. Other mechanisms identified were the questionnaire’s positive features (e.g. number of included questions), the NFPs’ collaborations with their teams or the other agencies, attendance at FCTC related workshops, and their own personal characteristics (e.g. experience, knowledge, expertise). However, the participants also acknowledged that not all supportive mechanisms apply for every NFP:

‘It is not difficult to be answered [by] the person who has some experience in tobacco control. … For me [it is] not a problem … maybe for other people it is not [the] same.’ (NFP, 614)

Recommendations for questionnaire and for those completing it

While some participants found the questionnaire ‘very simple and very straight forward’, many requested changes on the questionnaire’s clarity and structure. Participants who requested improvements on the questions’ clarity, struggled to suggest how this could be achieved. Only one participant suggested that the FCTC Secretariat needs to provide the definition of important words within each question, and completion instructions for the questions referring to corporate social responsibility, cross-border TAPS originating from Party’s territory, and banning the same forms of cross-border TAPS entering the Party’s territory for which domestic regulation apply (all sub-questions of C272). The same participant suggested that such definitions would help the NFPs to understand the questions and answer as the FCTC Secretariat requires. Furthermore, one participant expressed the opinion that the FCTC Secretariat should provide the questionnaire, its instructions and the FCTC website in more languages, while another recommended that whatever changes the FCTC Secretariat makes, they should pilot them first with the Parties and receive feedback about their appropriateness.

Three alterations to the questionnaire’s structure were proposed. Firstly, the removal of the restriction between questions C271 and C272 (‘If you answered “No” to question 3.2.7.1, please proceed to question 3.2.7.3.’), which provides a new block of questions only to the Parties that have a comprehensive ban on TAPS. Thus, everyone will have the opportunity to inform the FCTC Secretariat about the existing TAPS bans. Secondly, in question C272 (‘If you answered “Yes” to question 3.2.7.1, does your ban cover:’), it was suggested the repetition of its latter part in each of the following sub-questions which specify the TAPS types. Similarly, for the block of questions which refer to TAPS restrictions (C274–C2711), the participants suggested replacing any existing dashes with text clearly stating what information is required:

‘My question is if there is a link between question C273 and C274. … if [in all sub-questions it asks whether] we have a restriction on tobacco advertising … [then it is] “yes”. But in the constitution, we do not have such a restriction!’ (NFP, 1839)

Lastly, some participants suggested that the questionnaire could be improved by providing explanations beyond the binary answer, such as through an open-ended section:

‘There is a lot of information. And I think it should be some more responding options rather than just a simple “yes” or “no”.’ (NFP, 1839)

The study participants also suggested recommendations for those undertaking the NFP role. They suggested that every NFP should gain legislation expertise (local, on the Convention and on the Guidelines for Article 13) and be as close to the legislation’s content as possible during the completion process. Expanding expertise to other relevant legislation, outside of health policy, would also be beneficial. The participants also proposed that their colleagues attend small refresher trainings conducted by the FCTC Secretariat as these reduce time reading documents and also support knowledge exchange between the Parties. Furthermore, they recommended the involvement of others in the completion process, such as people from other governmental departments and the country’s WHO office:

‘… my proposal for these countries is to use the power of the WHO [country] office … to … assist the national focal point to develop and complete the questions.’ (NFP, 1129)

Our principal findings have shown some of the challenges such as different decision-making processes and other compounding complexities triggering the use of supportive mechanisms that are encountered by the NFPs during the completion of the WHO FCTC reporting questionnaire ( Figure 1 ). Our pilot study participants provided recommendations to address these issues, both for the questionnaire itself and for those completing it. In the framework approach, the findings are then discussed in the context of the established literature and existing theoretical perspectives 22 . Below, we use previously reported criticisms 7 - 9 of the WHO FCTC’s reporting processes to discuss how our findings relate and contribute to the understanding of reporting processes.

Challenges encountered during the completion of the FCTC questionnaire, and the solutions and supporting mechanisms deployed for overcoming them, according to national focal points interviewed in 2021

The FCTC Secretariat has stated 10 that some Parties complete both the comprehensive ban questions (C271–C272) and the questions referred to advertising restrictions (C273–C2711). We did not encounter this in our pilot study. A possible explanation is that the interview process and the presence of the study researchers overviewing the questionnaire completion, might have increased the participants’ compliance when reading the questions and providing their answers. It should also be considered that several NFPs use the digital version of the questionnaire, which automatically bypasses the restriction related questions in case of a comprehensive ban reporting. Hence, such incidences can only occur in cases where NFPs use the questionnaire’s printed version, and due to their overwhelming workload may not pay sufficient attention during its completion. The recommendations to involve the WHO’s country office or the individuals consulting the NFPs in the completion process could minimize such occurrences.

The FCTC Secretariat also states 10 that there are Parties with a comprehensive TAPS ban (C271) which did not actually cover all requirements (C272). We identify two potential explanations based on the study participant input. Firstly, it should be acknowledged that there are NFPs who considered the ‘comprehensiveness’ based on their overall interpretation of the legislation or based on the existence of the word ‘comprehensive’ within the legislation. Hence, the meaning of the word ‘comprehensive’ was not as tightly defined amongst the study participants as the WHO FCTC intends. Secondly, this incident may occur because, as one of our participants stated, some NFPs could feel uncomfortable for not reporting the explicit TAPS bans existing domestically, so they alter their answer in C271 by indicating that their Party is having a comprehensive ban while it is not. Within our data, there was a recommendation for the removal of the restriction between the questions C271 and C272. While this change could provide the opportunity for every Party to report any explicit bans, it would be unnecessarily questioning the existence of a comprehensive TAPS ban (C271). Adopting the participants recommendations in improving questionnaire clarity and structure, could help resolve this issue.

The NFPs have been criticized for selectively reporting existing legislation 7 , for providing nuanced interpretations, as opposed to yes/no answers 8 , 9 and for providing answers that do not fully reflect the realities of the legislative environment 7 . These occurrences could be explained by the fact that the decision-making was different amongst the NFPs for some questions (e.g. questions around the existence of explicit TAPS bans), which incorporates other data (e.g. surveillance) than the legislation text; a discrepancy which is further complicated by issues related to the understanding of the question and fitting the information properly under the restrictive given options (yes/no answers). The latter options are forcing the NFPs to deploy their own interpretation of the question or the information (e.g. TAPS legislation) and under-reporting the existing policies respectively, which could lead to a reporting that is discrepant with the existing situation. The NFPs can minimize the effect of these complexities by deploying questionnaire completion facilitators and enhancing their capacity, by using the established or creating new collaborations, attending FCTC-related workshops to increase their knowledge and learn from other Parties, or by involving the WHO country office in the cross-examination of the data entries.

The differences in resources selection seems to be generated by the absence of standardized questionnaire completion instructions followed by all NFPs. Hence, the informant’s suggestion for including the definition and instructions for proper questions’ answering should be considered by the FCTC Secretariat. A within-questionnaire guidance could facilitate the novice NFPs with the completion and it would remove the challenge of altering the questions’ content entirely. The digital version of the FCTC questionnaire could easily be modified to underline the words commonly used within the FCTC and the TAPS field (e.g. Parties, brand-stretching, depiction); thus, when a mouse sensor overlaps these words then a dialogue box could depict their definition. Similarly, on the side of each question, the FCTC Secretariat could provide a detailed explanation of what is required from the NFPs to consider and what to avoid before answering the specific question. These additions could be burdensome for the FCTC Secretariat, however, as our pilot study found, the NFPs are not reading the step-by-step instructions or watching the video-assisting materials provided, and there is a need for a standardized approach for all NFPs during reporting to eliminate any questions’ ambiguity or own interpretations.

Lastly, the dashes within the questionnaire for replacing parts of the questions create the challenge of understanding the link to a parent question and they should be replaced. During our study, we noticed that the informants, after a couple of data entries, were forgetting the parent question and start assuming its content, often wrongly leading to data entry mistakes. For example, questions that referred to the existence of specific TAPS restrictions (C274–C2711) with the presence of dashes, could be easily read as questioning the existence of constitutional principles, thus precluding them from adoption, as stated in the parent question (C273). Since the questionnaire’s digital version compounds the issue, as every question with a dash appears on a new browser page, the FCTC Secretariat should change every dash existing within the questionnaire with the exact text that it replaces.

Strengths and limitations

Our pilot study has some limitations. Due to the low participation rate, these data are not necessarily generalizable across all NFPs from low- and middle-income FCTC Parties. The presence of self-selection bias between our study participants should be acknowledged and thus the pilot study results need to be treated with the caution. Despite our efforts to for achieve high participation rates, these remained low. The participants were public officials, and hence we could not provide any incentives (e.g. vouchers) to increase participation. During the recruitment process of future investigations, anonymity and collection of non-sensitive data should be assured, clarification of own and field’s contribution, and that extensive expertise is not necessary for participation should be highlighted. Language barriers that prevent additional study participation could be mitigated by involving a multi-lingual research team.

The data’s generalizability to typical times should also be considered. The pilot study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which might have influenced the NFPs’ participation due to the increased workload and the specific challenges reported. The challenges described here, represent the opinions and recommendations of the people who were holding their country’s NFP position at the time of the study and for the FCTC questionnaire’s version circulated the same period. Hence, any challenges expressed here may differ from those that will be expressed from the participants’ successors who may have different professional background and expertise on the TAPS subject. Additionally, the format of the FCTC questionnaire can be updated at any moment, thus the challenges described here could be eliminated and new ones generated. Future studies could explore potential changes in the NFPs’ opinions over time or over updated versions of the WHO FCTC questionnaire.

Despite these limitations, our pilot study also has some strengths for the general literature. To the authors’ best knowledge, this was the first ever investigation targeted to the specific specialists group. The small sample size allowed us to dedicate more time with each participant for every question existing within the section of the FCTC questionnaire that refers to Article 13. This helped the participants to explain their own meanings and processes, as well as to reveal struggles that were internalized until today. Our sample’s homogeneity revealed that the identified challenges were not associated with the participants’ specific WHO Region. In contrast, they seem to be influenced more by the personal interpretation of the questions, which was determined by the training received and the habits developed over the years with the FCTC questionnaire completion. The study participants provided an extensive list of recommendations ( Figure 2 ). These should be acknowledged at FCTC level, as the outcomes from this questionnaire inform researchers and the Conference of Parties about the current state of the TAPS policy environment, are used as good practices exchange, and form the direction of the global tobacco control policy agenda. Our findings are also important for the national tobacco control advocates, as the challenges mentioned here create opportunities for initiating or further developing collaborations with the NFPs. This can be achieved by the advocates supporting the NFPs’ task, either by monitoring the accuracy of the Article 13 implementation reporting, or by facilitating novice NFPs with their training, informing them about the issues existing within the questionnaire, and supporting them with the proper interpretation of the questions.

Summary of recommendations for the FCTC Secretariat, the questionnaire monitoring the implementation of the FCTC and the administrative personnel of the governmental tobacco control units, as provided by the national focal points that participated in interviews conducted in 2021

In this pilot study, we interviewed NFPs responsible for the completion of the FCTC questionnaire on behalf of their Party, and we documented the challenges encountered by them during the completion process, the potential causes of these issues, as well as the improvements which the FCTC Secretariat could make to the questionnaire. Addressing these issues could assist the NFPs to use a more unified data reporting approach and provide data that more accurately represent the TAPS policy environment of the Parties. Improving the data quality in such manner would help the FCTC Secretariat to be well-informed of what TAPS legislative gaps exist at an international level and identify how best to support full Party compliance with Article 13.

Supplementary Material

Acknowledgements.

We thank Leticia Martinez Lopez from the WHO’s FCTC Secretariat team who provided us access to our study participants and who also facilitated the recruitment process. We thank Raouf Alebshehy for evaluating the interview guide and for providing comments on the manuscript.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The authors have each completed and submitted an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. A. Tselengidis reports that since the initial planning of the work he was a member/PhD student of the STOP project at University of Bath from 26/04/2019 to present. STOP is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. In addition he acknowledges the support of a University of Bath PhD Studentship from 26/04/2019 to present, and he reports that STOP/University of Bath staff member gave support for piloting interview guide (Raouf Alebshehy) and that FCTC Secretariat member supported him to approach potential participants (Leticia Martinez Lopez). S. Dance reports that since the initial planning of the work she acknowledges receipt of support from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products funding from 02/08/2020 to 30/09/2022. Furthermore she reports that in the past 36 months she acknowledges support from Cancer Research UK 'Harnessing Big Data Alongside Investigative Methods: Investigating Tobacco Industry Conduct in an Era of Political Uncertainty' project funding, from 02/03/2020 to 31/07/2020 and support from a University of Bath PhD Studentship from 03/10/2022 to present. S. Adams reports that in the past 36 months there was a payment to the Institution from Autistica and Alcohol Change UK, and that she used to be a Communications Officer – Mid Career Network at UK Society for Behavioural Medicine and a Committee Member – National Advocacy and Education Committee at the Research Society on Alcoholism. B. Freeman reports that in the past 36 months she and her institution received a payment from the Cancer Council NSW, and her institution received payments also from Healthway WA, VicHealth, Ian Potter Foundation, and NSW Health. She also reports that in the past 36 months she received consulting fees from World Health Organization, Heart Foundation NSW and NSW Health, and payments/honoraria from the Department of Health, The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, USA FDA, and BMJ Tobacco Control. In addition she reports that she was an expert advisor (unpaid) at the Cancer Council - Tobacco Issues Committee, an expert member (paid for time) at NHMRC Electronic Cigarettes Working Committee, and an advisor (unpaid) at the Cancer Institute - Vaping Communications Advisory Panel.

This work was supported by the STOP project. STOP is a global tobacco industry watchdog whose mission is to expose the tobacco industry strategies and tactics that undermine public health. STOP is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The funders played no role in the study design, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript or decision to submit it for publication.

ETHICAL APPROVAL AND INFORMED CONSENT

Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Research Ethics Approval Committee for Health (REACH) of the University of Bath (Approval number: EP 19/20 074; Date: 16 November 2020). Participants provided informed consent.

DATA AVAILABILITY

Authors’ contributions.

AT, BF, SA and JC developed the research design. AT gained ethics approval, collected, analyzed the data and produced the first draft of the manuscript. SD contributed to data analysis and data interpretation. All authors edited and approved the final manuscript.

PROVENANCE AND PEER REVIEW

Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Question: Should We Ban Cigarettes?

Readers Question: Using data and your economic knowledge assess the case for and against a government completely banning the sale and consumption of cigarettes. AQA (15)

1. Cigarettes are a demerit good. People underestimate the costs of smoking, e.g. lower life expectancy. It has been suggested that the true cost of a packet of cigarettes is over $200. Therefore, the government is justified to try and stop people consuming goods which harm them.

2. Cigarettes have negative externalities on the rest of society. For example, it creates health problems of passive smoking. This leads to over consumption and is another justification for banning smoking.

3. Tax is insufficient for reducing consumption of cigarettes. Demand is very price inelastic because people become addicted. Therefore, banning cigarettes may be the only way to reduce consumption.

Problems of Banning Cigarette Sales and Consumption

1. It would encourage the black market. People are addicted so they would find a way to keep smoking. This would encourage criminal activity which the government would need to try and police. The potential profits for criminals would be very high. It could be a similar situation to prohibition in the 1920s and 30s in the US. Banning alcohol led to big rise in organised crime.

2. The government would lose all tax revenue. This amounts to over £7 billion. It would require other taxes to be increased.

3. It would cause unemployment amongst cigarette companies. However, South Korea is suggesting to bring the complete ban after 10 years. This gives people the chance to change their habits.

4. There are several alternative measures for discouraging cigarette sales. For example, banning cigarettes in public spaces has been quite effective in reducing consumption and discouraging people from starting to smoke. Also advertising to make people aware of the dangers of smoking (e.g. putting warnings on packets of cigarettes)

Cigarettes are definitely harmful to health. In some ways they are more likely to kill than other drugs which are criminalised. However, because cigarette use is so widespread, banning cigarettes completely would lead to very large black market and lose the government substantial tax revenues. It would make many ordinary people more likely to commit a crime to feed their habit. See also:

• Should Taxes on Cigarettes be Increased? 

6 thoughts on “Question: Should We Ban Cigarettes?”

cigarettes are harmful at certain stages. e cigarettes have given the right solution for it.

Both of them are deadly for health. There isn’t one better than the other.

how would you bring elasticity into this type of question ?

You could say the govt could use a tax to reduce demand for cigarettes. However, demand is very inelastic therefore a tax is insufficient. Therefore, banning it may be only solution to prevent people consuming this demerit good.

Do you people not see the bigger picture here. It’s about control and telling you what you can and cannot do. They won’t stop at cigarettes. Think about it you idiots.

The government gave our war veterans cigarettes to help with stress now they are telling us it is unhealthy and we are forced to give up. We are living in a communist country where we are not allowed to make our own decisions about our health or lifestyle. I have smoked all my life, worked hard paid huge amounts of tax and the way you have discriminated against smokers and treated us like leper’s is very degrading and I am not proud to say your a fair government if you thought of how smokers felt at all it would have been more acceptable but as per usual you treat the average workers as mere specks of dust

Comments are closed.

( IELTS essay) Cigarette advertisements should be banned completely?

ash5005 10 / 16   Dec 23, 2012   #4 suprb..no words to say

alphy 3 / 10   Dec 23, 2012   #5 hai, good structurar and flow

Should Smoking Be Illegal?

Should smoking be banned? What are the pros and cons of banning cigarettes in public places? If you’re writing an argumentative essay or persuasive speech on why smoking should be banned, check out this sample.

Smoking Should Be Banned: Essay Introduction

Reasons why smoking should be banned, why smoking should not be banned: essay arguments, why smoking should be banned essay conclusion.

Smoking involves burning a substance to take in its smoke into the lungs. These substances are commonly tobacco or cannabis. Combustion releases the active substances in them, like nicotine, which are absorbed through the lungs.

A widespread technique through which this is done is via smoking manufactured cigarettes or hand-rolling the tobacco ready for smoking. Almost 1 billion people in the majority of all human societies practice smoking. Complications directly associated with smoking claim the lives of half of all the persons involved in smoking tobacco or marijuana for a long time.

Smoking is an addiction because tobacco contains nicotine, which is very addictive. The nicotine makes it difficult for a smoker to quit. Therefore, a person will become used to nicotine such that he/she has to smoke to feel normal. Consequently, I think smoking should be banned for some reason.

One reason why smoking should be banned is that it has got several health effects. It harms almost every organ of the body. Cigarette smoking causes 87% of lung cancer deaths and is also responsible for many other cancer and health problems. 

Apart from this, infant deaths that occur in pregnant women are attributed to smoking. Similarly, people who stay near smokers become secondary smokers, who may breathe in the smoke and get the same health problems as smokers. Although not widely smoked, cannabis also has health problems, and withdrawal symptoms include depression, insomnia, frustration, anger, anxiety, concentration difficulties, and restlessness.

Besides causing emphysema, smoking also affects the digestive organs and the blood circulatory systems, especially heart arteries. Women have a higher risk of heart attack than men, exacerbating with time as one smokes. Smoking also affects the mouth, whereby the teeth become discolored, the lips blacken and always stay dry, and the breath smells bad.

Cigarette and tobacco products are costly. People who smoke are therefore forced to spend their money on these products, which badly wastes the income they would have otherwise spent on other things. Therefore, I think that smoking should be forbidden to reduce the costs of treating diseases related to smoking and the number of deaths caused by smoking-related illnesses.

However, tobacco and cigarette manufacturing nations would lose a lot if smoking was to be banned. I, therefore, think that it should not be banned. Some nations largely depend on exporting cigarettes and tobacco products to get revenue.

This revenue typically boosts the economy of such nations. If smoking were banned, they would incur significant losses since tobacco companies are multi-billion organizations. Apart from these, millions of people will be jobless due to the ban.

The process by which tobacco and cigarette products reach consumers is very complex, and it involves a chain process with several people involved in it. Banning smoking, therefore, means these people will lose their jobs, which most may depend on for their livelihoods.

In conclusion, the ban on smoking is a tough step to be undertaken, especially when the number of worldwide users is billions. Although it burdens nations enormously in treating smoking-related diseases, it may take a long time before a ban can work. Attempts by some nations to do this have often been met with failures.

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• 17 April 2024
• Correction 18 April 2024

Smoking bans are coming: what does the evidence say?

• Carissa Wong

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Smoking rates have declined globally over the past few decades. Credit: Debbie Bragg/Everynight Images via Alamy

Nations worldwide are aiming to introduce some of the tightest restrictions ever on smoking and vaping, especially among young people.

On 16 April, UK lawmakers backed one of the world’s most ambitious plans — to create by 2040 a ‘smoke-free’ generation of people who will never be able to legally buy tobacco. The proposal is now a step closer to becoming law. The UK, Australian and French governments are also clamping down on vaping with e-cigarettes. These countries’ bold policies are currently in the minority, say researchers, but such measures would almost certainly prevent diseases, as well as save lives and billions of dollars in health-care costs.

Smoking scars the immune system for years after quitting

The UK plan would probably “be the most impactful public-health policy ever introduced”, says health-policy researcher Duncan Gillespie at the University of Sheffield, UK. The Conservative government’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initiated the proposal. The government hopes that the smoking restrictions, alongside offering health benefits for individuals, will reduce toxic chemicals leaching from used vapes into the environment.

Smoke-free generations

The health harms of smoking tobacco have been established for decades — it substantially raises the risk of diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Increased awareness of these health risks has led to a global decline in the deadly habit in the past few decades (see ‘Smoke clearing’).

Source: WHO

Any drop in smoking rates saves money and reduces the burden on health-care systems, says Alison Commar, who studies tobacco policy at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO estimates that tobacco use costs the world US$1.4 trillion every year in health expenditures and lost productivity. “Every tobacco-related illness is adding to the burden on the health system unnecessarily,” says Commar.

The UK proposal, announced last October, would ban the sale of tobacco to any person born in or after 2009. That would prevent anyone who turns 15 or younger this year from ever buying cigarettes legally in the country. From 2027, the minimum legal age to purchase tobacco products would increase from 18 years old by one year each year — meaning that the threshold in 2028, for instance, would be 20. This strategy, the government hopes, will by 2040 create a smoke-free generation. The UK move follows similar legislation announced in 2021 by New Zealand. The nation reversed its intended ban because tobacco sales were needed to help pay for tax cuts, but the government said last month that it will seek to ban disposable vapes.

Modelling smokers

The UK government’s policies are backed by a modelling study published in December that predicts how the proposal would affect smoking rates and people over time. Its ‘pessimistic’ model predicts that the policy could reduce the smoking rate among people aged 14–30 from 13% in 2023 to around 8% in 2030. By 2040, just 5% of this age group would smoke. In the baseline scenario, 8% of 14- to 30-year-olds would smoke. In the ‘optimistic’ scenario, only 0.4% of that age group would start smoking by 2040 (see ‘Ban plan’). That model suggests that, by 2075, the policy would save tens of thousands of lives and £11 billion ($13.7 billion) in health-care costs by preventing smoking-related diseases.

These projections are based on solid evidence and are of high quality, says tobacco researcher Allen Gallagher at the University of Bath, UK.

Still, no country has ever introduced a policy that raises the minimum tobacco-purchasing age in this way — only time will tell what the effects will be, says Commar.

Vaping bans

Nations are also targeting vaping, a trend that began around 2010 and has surged among younger people. Many people have perceived it as a potentially healthier alternative to smoking — for which there is substantial evidence. But whether vaping itself harms health has long been controversial, and the evidence is uncertain.

“The results are not super clear, but certainly hint towards vaping causing damage to the lungs and other organs,” says Carolyn Baglole, who studies lung disease at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, Canada.

Source: UK government

Vapes are made of a box filled with liquid that usually contains nicotine, a heating element that turns the liquid into aerosols and a mouthpiece to inhale the aerosol ‘vape’ clouds, which are often fruity or dessert-flavoured. Although vapes lack tobacco and most of the toxic chemicals in cigarettes, the nicotine is still harmful. Nicotine can raise blood pressure, increase the risk of heart and lung disease and disrupt brain development in children and adolescents. In turn, this can lead to impairments in attention, memory and learning.

The UK plan includes banning disposable vapes, restricting vape flavours that appeal to young users and limiting how vapes are advertised. Most young people in Great Britain use disposable vapes rather than rechargeable ones than can be refilled with liquid, according to a survey by the public-health charity Action on Smoking and Health, based in London. Rechargeable vapes would remain legal.

Global policies

The French government also wants to ban disposable vapes this year, and in December its parliament unanimously backed the proposal. And in 2021, Australia restricted e-cigarette sales to smokers who have a prescription for using vapes to quit smoking. “There is a good consensus that vaping is likely to pose only a small fraction of risks of smoking over the long term,” says psychologist Peter Hajek at Queen Mary University of London, who led a study 1 that suggested vaping safely helped pregnant women to stop smoking.

But illegal vaping is still surging among people under the legal age of 18 in Australia, according to research by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. That’s led the government to tighten rules on vape products. “This policy push should see the upswing in youth vaping contained and reversed,” says epidemiologist Tony Blakely at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

The flavoured liquid in vapes also contains solvents such as propylene glycol and glycerin. Agencies including the US and European Union drug regulators have approved these chemicals for oral consumption. But animal studies suggest that inhaling them could cause damage and inflammation, raising the risk of lung and heart disease 2 . “The issue is we don’t know much about what happens when you heat these products and aerosolize them for inhalation,” says Baglole.

One thing researchers know is that the heating element in e-cigarettes can release heavy metals into the inhaled aerosols. These particles have been linked to a raised risk of heart and respiratory disease, she says.

Ultimately, scientists seem to be overwhelmingly in favour of tough restrictions on smoking and vaping. Research is needed to establish the long-term health impacts of such policies, says Baglole. “Hopefully, different types of studies, different models, in addition to human participants, will start to paint a more complete picture,” she says.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00472-3

Updates & Corrections

Correction 18 April 2024 : The graphic ‘Smoking prevalence’ wrongly coloured the chart lines for the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. This has been corrected.

Pesola, F. et al. Addiction 119 , 875–884 (2024).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Traboulsi, H. et al. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21 , 3495 (2020).

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Alcohol And Tobacco Advertising Should Be Heavily Regulated Or Banned Altogether Argumentative Essay

Type of paper: Argumentative Essay

Topic: Business , Health , Products , Company , Alcoholism , Tobacco , Alcohol , Smoking

Published: 03/02/2020

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Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising should be Heavily Regulated or Banned Altogether? Agree or Disagree? In an attempt to reach a massive potential market, companies have array of options to choose from, but over time advertisement has proven to be an avoidable choice in this pursuit. Since all the companies have the right to buy air time on any media to advertise their product, alcohol and tobacco manufacturing companies have taken this advantage to spread their products (Harrison, Roy, and Waun 59-65). However, there have been debates for decades now, whether these two products need to abolished. Because high health risks are associated with consumption of alcohol and tobacco products, women, adolescences, and expectant mother are the most vulnerable. Besides being naturally dangerous, they are causal factors of various diseases. These include varied cancers, respiratory complications, liver cirrhosis, and heart diseases (Watson, Victor, and Sherma 284-289). In cases of long term use, they result in deaths. Therefore, since lives are precious than economic gains attain from alcohol and tobacco, their advertisements should be block and efforts directed to sweep them out of the community completely. During the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco product, persuasive approaches are implemented where images of health people drinking and smoking while having merry moment are used. According to research by Haustein and David, the mythical imageries applied have a tremendous impact on adolescence (5-8). Annually, there have been programs trying to save fifty percent of adolescences indulged in these harmful substances, but with the frequent adverts on media, the effort and resource channeled for it go to waste. As a result, school dropouts, early pregnancy, high infection rates of sexually transmitted diseases has been registered in adolescences under influence of alcohol and tobacco. Notably, their academic performances also deteriorate alongside their health (Schmitz, and Richard 68). Ultimately, they become societal bothers since they stair head societal problems including crimes, rapes cases, and poverty. Therefore, to curb these menaces and also save the innocent adolescences, alcohol and tobacco advertisement masterminding the whole mess should be abolished. When it comes to diseases, statistics depicts that approximately more than a million people perish from direct and indirect effect of alcohol and tobacco annually in United States alone. Cigarettes alone, contributes seventy percent of the statistics through cancer and respiratory related infections (Bayard 34). Also, nonsmokers who by accident inhale unfiltered chemical content of tobacco smoke are highly vulnerable. Pregnant women using both or either tobacco or alcohol risk themselves and the babies they are exacting. As a result, they are likely to give birth to babies with fatal alcohol disorder (FAD) and or fatal alcohol effects (FAE) (Watson, Victor, and Sherma 305). Further, these children are prone of suffering mental disorientations in the future. On the other hand, deaths emanating from a fire started by carelessly dropped cigarette filters have claimed thousands of lives every year. Considered the two in terms of human health and physical safety and wellbeing, cigarettes and alcohol advertisement should be abolished Economically, these two products are among the highly taxed thereby, making them large gross domestic product contributor. The heavy taxes levies have been applied in an endeavor to discourage the users (Bayard 43). But, there are advertisements by the companies to count tackle that, where consumers of these drugs have an opportunity to win prizes out of continues consumptions. This has not only swayed people, but it has also deteriorated users of these substances economically. Both being addictive substances, their users are unable to control their consumption rate and this has impacted financial irresponsibility on parents affected since they overspend on the drags forgetting their family responsibilities (Harrison, Roy, and Waun 78). Therefore, why should alcohol and tobacco advertisement still stand with these kinds of damages they cause? In summation, health hazards impacted by both alcohol and tobacco as a result of misleading adverts is worrying and need urgent responses measures to curb further damages. Lack of informed and autonomous decisions by adolescences makes them gullible to false adverts on alcohol and tobacco. In totality, this drugs need to be completely made illegal starting with completely banning their adverts.

Works Cited

Bayard, Steven P. Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders. Washington, DC: Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1992. Print. Harrison, Louis B, Roy B. Sessions, and Waun K. Hong. Head and Neck Cancer: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008. Print. Haustein, K.-O, and David Groneberg. Tobacco or Health?Berlin: Springer, 2010. Print. Schmitz, Cecilia M, and Richard A. Gray. Smoking: The Health Consequences of Tobacco Use : an Annotated Bibliography with Analytical Introduction. Ann Arbor, Mich: Pierian Press, 1995. Print. Watson, Ronald R, Victor R. Preedy, and Sherma Zibadi. Alcohol, Nutrition, and Health Consequences. New York: Humana Press, 2013. Print.

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Banning the use of Tobacco Essay

Introduction, why the use of tobacco should be banned, works cited.

Tobacco is a product of a species of plant that has nicotine content. Harvested as leaves of that particular plant, tobacco can be used to control pests or even as medicine.

It is however widely used as a drug through smoking, snuffing, chewing among others. This paper seeks to support the banning of the use of tobacco. The paper will give reasons in support of the opinion.

Tobacco and cardiovascular diseases

Tobacco like many other drugs has varied side effects that call for the control of its use. These negative impacts are manifested in individuals and ends up costing lives in the long run. One of the reasons why tobacco should be banned is its danger in relation to cardiovascular diseases.

Cardiovascular diseases are complications that are associated with the heart and blood vessels in the body such as arteries which carry blood to body parts. Once a cardiovascular disease is induced in a person, it manifests in different ways causing threats to a person’s health and thus life.

A significant percentage of heart complications related deaths have, for example, been associated with tobacco smoking with reports ranging this value at about thirty percent. One of the contents of tobacco, carbon monoxide, has for example been identified to have an impact on the oxygen carrying capacity of blood.

Consequently, a person who is under the influence of tobacco will suffer from insufficient supply of oxygen to vital body parts that include the “heart, lungs, brain and other vital body organs” (Wvdhhr 1).

The nicotine content of tobacco also induces increased “heart beat rate and blood pressure” (Wvdhhr 1) as a result, the blood circulatory system is over worked and exposed to risks of being damaged.

This in the long run results in cases such as “heart attacks, high blood pressure, blood clots, strokes, hemorrhages” (Wvdhhr 1) among other disorders. A person who smokes is thus endangered by a number of complications that will negatively hinder the person’s operations and subsequently his or her life due to malfunctioning body parts.

These effects can be easily transferred to aspects such as economic instability of the tobacco victim and immediate family members if the victim was the sole bread winner and is put down by such cardiovascular complications.

A government’s responsibility over the welfare of its citizens therefore calls for a step to control such cardiovascular complications and subsequent impacts and one of the primary ways to do this is by banning the consumption of tobacco.

Tobacco and cancers

Another reason why tobacco should be banned is because of its effect in causing a number of cancers in the body. Cancer is characterized by an induced growth of malignant cells in a person’s body.

These cancerous growths also have an effect of malfunctioning of specified body organs despite the level of pain that might be associated with it. Tobacco smoking has been identified to; for example, cause about “ninety percent of laryngeal cancer and lung cancer and a significant percentage of oral, esophageal and stomach cancers” (Tobacco 1).

Once the cancerous cells start to grow in the body parts, they impair the parts and might even spread causing wounds in the body with subsequent dangers such as death. Lung cancer will, for example, be characterized with growth of foreign cells in the lungs and a corresponding damage of the normal cells.

As a result, the normal functionality of the lungs such as the absorption of oxygen into the body and the elimination of carbon dioxide from the body will be impaired. Respiratory processes that require oxygen and are necessary for cellular activities of the body will therefore be compromised.

Stomach cancer may also impair digestive processes and subsequent poor supply of nutrients to the body. The other cancers such as oral or esophageal may also be associated with a level of pain that can even discourage an individual from eating.

As a result, there will be poor nutritional habit in a victim of these cancers due to insufficient supply of nutrients to the body cells and subsequent insufficient energy generated by the body.

Tobacco therefore with respect to its induced cancers affects the functionality of body organs and the overall health of an individual. These complications have been associated with significant percentage of premature deaths among tobacco users (Tobacco 1).

Tobacco and Addiction

Another reason for alarm over the use of tobacco is the threat of addiction that it poses to its users. Like in cases of other drugs, and induced by its nicotine content, tobacco compels its users into addiction which makes them to even overlook the side effects that the drug has in their lives.

Following the addiction, individual addicts together with help that they receive from social society is not sufficient to help them out of the drug. The only viable control is thus an authoritative step to ban the drug (Dugdale 1).

The use of tobacco is identifiably unhealthy following its risks to the user’s health that is then spread to other members of the society through social and economic costs. Since the drug is addictive, individual users can not easily and willingly stop the consumption the drug. The significant control measure therefore lies in banning usage of the drug.

Dugdale, David. Drug dependence . NCBI, 20101. Web.

Tobacco. Dangers of tobacco . Tobacco Facts, n.d. Web. < http://www.tobacco-facts.info/dangers_of_tobacco.htm >

Wvdhhr. Tobacco and CVD . WVDHHR, n.d. Web. < http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/cvd/page1.htm >

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IvyPanda. (2023, December 5). Banning the use of Tobacco. https://ivypanda.com/essays/banning-the-use-of-tobacco/

"Banning the use of Tobacco." IvyPanda , 5 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/banning-the-use-of-tobacco/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Banning the use of Tobacco'. 5 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Banning the use of Tobacco." December 5, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/banning-the-use-of-tobacco/.

1. IvyPanda . "Banning the use of Tobacco." December 5, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/banning-the-use-of-tobacco/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Banning the use of Tobacco." December 5, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/banning-the-use-of-tobacco/.

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