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Stained yellow teeth, wheezing fits, sudden cravings, bad breath, and eventual death. All symptoms of smoking. But look on the bright side, you won’t need any more cough drops. What a deal, for only as little as $165 per month, for an average smoker. The tobacco industry advertises in order to lure in its biggest target: youths between the ages of 10 and 20. Studies show that teenagers are heavily influenced by tobacco advertising. In 1998, surveys found that the tobacco industry was one of the top 10 advertisers in at least 18 countries. Eighty percent of the American advertising companies believe that tobacco advertising makes smoking more acceptable to youth. Every year the number of dollars the tobacco companies makes increases. Every year the tobacco company spends more trying to get youth to start smoking. The only warning given is the few lines of size five print: may be hazardous to your health. 

The tobacco firms are aware that today’s youth is educated about smoking, at least in America. They begin to advertise cigarettes that are filtered, or even ones that have less nicotine, the powerful addictant in cigarettes. They say, see it’s safe now. They also use role models, people who are cool, who of course, smoke, to show youth how cool you can be if you smoke. Characters such as the Marlboro Man, Jo Camel, and the Kool Penguin, are all aimed at youths. Through advertising, tobacco firms try to link smoking with athletic prowess, sexual attractiveness, success, sophistication, adventure, and even self-fulfillment. They try to proclaim that smoking will make you cool, that smoking is the cure to your social problems. 

Tobacco is the only legal drug that kills. More than 4,000 toxic and cancer-causing chemicals have been found in cigarettes. Even in the fine print, cigarette commercials don’t tell you the risk. Smokers who take drugs such as methadone, amphetamines and barbiturates rate tobacco as the most addictive drug. These people who take speed, crack, alcohol, heroin, opium, and morphine agree that cigarettes, a legal drug, are more addictive than these illegal drugs. Smoking causes and contributes to cancer of the lungs, voice box, throat, mouth, bladder, pancreas and kidneys. And there is no safe cigarette, for studies show that smoking filtered cigarettes has the same consequences as smoking those that are unfiltered. Besides this, smoking causes more deaths than alcohol, AIDS, illegal drugs, car crashes, murders and suicides combined. 

But some actions have been taken about the worldwide smoking situation. The World Health Organization (WHO), a branch of the United Nations, has been sponsoring many organizations that are researching ways to curb and reduce negative effects of smoking. The WHO has also put forward the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (the FCTC), which will control the amount of tobacco processed and advertised. Only a few countries object to it, including one world power: the US. During the election cycle, Phillip Morris, the world’s largest tobacco company donated 3 million dollars to the Bush campaign and to the Republican party. So of course, the U.S. delegation is doing all that it can to “derail the negotiations.” Another negotiation meeting is planned this month. As this date draws nearer, more and more countries have begun to speak in favor of this Convention. 

Smoking kills one in five Americans. And every year five million people die worldwide. Every year a total of 200 billion dollars is lost caring for disease and deaths caused by smoking. Every year 1.1 million kids between the ages of 10 and 18 start smoking. On average, smoking removes 15 years from a smoker’s expected lifespan. So when someone offers you a cigarette, think about what you’re getting into. 

John Slama is a Berkeley High School student.  

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