Online Reporter
The Herald, 7 January 1989
SMOKING in the United States has become more and more a pastime among the less educated, with those who did not attend university more than twice as likely to take up the habit, researchers say.
By the year 2000 only 22 percent of the US population will be smoking cigarettes, compared to 30 percent in 1985, if present trends continue. But fewer than one-in-10 college graduates will be smokers, compared to nearly a third of those with no more than a high school education, they said.
The findings were published in this week’s journal of the American Medical Association that marked the 25th anniversary of the first US Surgeon-General’s report branding cigarettes as a cancer risk, published on January 11 1964.
Everett Kopp, the current surgeon-general, said in an editorial that US and British tobacco companies continue to export “disease, disability and death to the people of developing countries” and are responsible for 300 000 tobacco-related deaths in the United States yearly.
Mr Koop said physicians have “an obligation to help developing countries learn from the mistakes that ‘developed’ countries have already made” from tobacco use.
Researchers at the government’s Centres for Disease Control said that while smoking has declined generally in the United States “the decline has occurred five times faster among the higher educated compared with the less educated”.
They said that “in the future anti-smoking messages need to be based much more on educational status”. But they added that education alone does not appear to explain the differences, and suggested that socio-economic status plays a role.
Lessons for today:
- The passage teaches that education, socio-economic factors, and targeted health campaigns are key to reducing harmful habits like smoking, and global cooperation is needed to prevent health risks worldwide.
- Education reduces smoking by raising awareness, improving decision-making, and shaping healthier social norms. People with higher education levels are more likely to understand the long-term dangers of smoking (cancer, heart disease), which motivates them to quit.
- The Surgeon-General criticised tobacco companies for exporting harm to developing countries. Developed nations and corporations have an ethical duty to prevent spreading health risks globally.
- Education often leads to better jobs and income, reducing stress-related smoking and increasing the ability to afford alternatives like nicotine replacement therapy.
