Why People Smoke

Naichen Liu

Professor Maya Sanyal

CWRTG 3 001

Feb 22 2012

Why People Smoke

Most people are unaware of how fast smoking is expanded in the U.S. From the most comprehensive survey of the U.S. Public Health Service, it is estimated that of the approximately 50 million men in our civilian population, about 39 million, or 78 percent, have a history of tobacco use. While the percentage of men smokers has been almost stable in recent years, but women smokers has been showing a steady increase.

From 1880 to 1955 the annual total consumption of tobacco per person over fourteen years had been more than doubled, from 5.41 pounds a year to 11.92 pounds, but during the same period cigarette consumption multiplied about 204 times, from .047 to 9.57 pounds per person.

Although there is some variation in the different studies on when North Americans begin to smoke, a consensus of the findings indicates that by age thirteen about one out of six youngsters has begun to experiment with smoking, by fourteen one out of four, and by eighteen virtually one out of two has the smoking habit. Girls do not late far behind boys in early consumption of smoking, but the boys appear to be consistently heavier smokers. Adolescent smoking is not a recent phenomenon, yet the last decade has seen a highly accelerated change to an earlier age for beginning smoking.

However, we all know that smoking is bad for us, there's no denying it. So why is it that these millions of people continue to smoke? Why do people smoke in general? I highly doubt all of them smoke without some sort of reasoning behind it. Most people have some sort of logical reason as why they smoke. After doing research, I find out that there are many different reasons why people smoke, which are psychological reason, nicotine and MAO B, a crucial enzyme in our brain. Like Seltzer said, “For the most part, the various explanations fall into the psychological realm” (1). However, nicotine and MAO B also play an important role in...