Smoking Health Epidemic
As we approach a new year filled with fresh possibilities, countless people will try to quit smoking. Everyone has their reasons to butt out: to improve their health, to eliminate the costs of tobacco products or to avoid spreading secondhand smoke.
Yet should smoking be considered an individual disease or is it a behaviour that is shaped by social conditions?
If smoking is a disease it requires medical treatment. If lighting up is a social behaviour it is shaped by norms, attitudes and environmental influences. So, is smoking an illness or a collective activity?
Medical definitions have reinforced the idea that smoking is indeed a disease. For instance, tobacco dependence was included as a psychiatric condition by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1980. Eight years later, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report declared smoking to be an addiction. Since then, the majority of doctors have treated smoking as a disease requiring medical attention.
Source and Full Article: http://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/udem-news/news-digest/smoking-is-not-an-individual-disease-it-is-a-collective-health-epidemic.html
Tags: smoking health, smoking medical treatment, smoking social behavior, tobacco dependence, try to quit smoking