“The government condemns smoking, but still permits tobacco to be sold to the public. All of this is due to commercializing on that which produces a short life.” —The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, How to Eat to Live, Book 2, page 22
Tobacco use, cigarettes and e-cigarettes (vaping), in particular, are on a steady incline amongst the disenfranchised American population. Marketing research firm Grand View Research reported on their website.
“The U.S. tobacco market size was valued at USD $75.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.4% from 2022 to 2030.
As a result of changing consumer preferences, several manufacturers are marketing many novel products like cigars and cigarillos and next-generation products to expand their profit margin.
In the U.S., people living below the poverty line and having lower levels of educational attainment have higher rates of cigarette smoking when compared to the rest of the population.”
Based on this research, lower-income people and those without a college education are more susceptible to succumbing to the use of tobacco products.
Stress of poverty drives unhealthy behaviors, leading tobacco companies to target low-income communities with more cigarette advertising using larger signs, and three times as many brand ads.
Tobacco manufacturers also specifically target young people in lower economic communities and sell cheaper cigarettes in these communities.
Reuters reported in 2017 on its website that a disproportionate number of tobacco shops are in poor neighborhoods across the United States.
Cities across the nation have witnessed an influx of smoke shops spring up almost simultaneously mostly in predominantly poor neighborhoods. Several smoke shop owners were contacted by The Final Call for an interview, resulting in all declining interviews.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports, “In 2024, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among middle and high school students in the United States: 1.63 million (5.9%) students currently used e-cigarettes.
This includes: 410,000 (3.5%) middle school students, 1.21 million (7.8%) high school students. Among students who currently used e-cigarettes: 87.6% used flavored e-cigarettes, 38.4% used an e-cigarette on at least 20 of the last 30 days, and 26.3% used an e-cigarette every day.”
The dangers of nicotine were also shared.
“Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine can harm the parts of an adolescent’s brain that control attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. E-cigarette marketing, the availability of flavored products, social influences, and the effects of nicotine can influence youth to start or continue vaping,” according to the CDC.
The agency also stressed the impact and danger of second-hand smoke exposure has on nonsmokers. In adults who do not smoke, secondhand smoke exposure can cause coronary heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and other diseases.
It can also result in premature death. Secondhand smoke can cause adverse reproductive health effects in women, including low birth weight. In children, secondhand smoke exposure can cause respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma attacks. In babies, secondhand smoke can cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Secondhand smoke exposure can produce harmful inflammatory and respiratory effects within 60 minutes of exposure which can last for at least three hours after exposure.
General family physician, Dr. Akili Muhammad, stated, “I think the aspect of smoking, vaping, and marijuana use that people do not take into consideration is the aspect of heat.
This heat is damaging to the body, these high temperatures are going into the throat, mouth, nose, and lungs and is a damaging fibrotic destructive process. I have noticed with the young people that I have worked with over the years, they are having respiratory problems.”
Dr. Muhammad continued, “Specifically with vaping I have noted that these chemicals are affecting the attention span, problem-solving skills, and brain function overall.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) public education campaign, The Real Cost, aims to prevent youth from using tobacco products by educating them about the risks and negative health effects of smoking and vaping, according to the FDA’s website.
Yasmeen gives testimony regarding her prior vaping addiction in a video campaign, “My Vaping Mistake,” where she stated, “I grew up in a pretty strict household and soccer was a way of releasing anger that I had to hold in all the time.
One night I decided to sneak out to attend a party with my friends, and that was the first time I tried vaping. From then, I had to vape all the time, sometimes I would skip class at school just to vape in the bathroom.
All my motivation and passion for the things I loved like soccer, went away. When I realized I couldn’t find anything good in my life, I knew it was because of my addiction. Once I realized that if I had the power to destroy my life, I had the power to make it good.”
said Yolanda C. Richardson, president and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, testified at the U.S. Senate Committee hearing on Combatting the Youth Vaping Epidemic by Enhancing Enforcement Against Illegal E-Cigarettes” on June 12.
“We agree with the FDA’s determination that flavored tobacco products should not be permitted because they increase the appeal and use of e-cigarettes by youth,” Ms. Richardson stated.
According to tobaccofreekids.org, “E-cigarettes are hooking a new generation on nicotine—putting millions of kids at risk and threatening decades of progress in reducing youth tobacco use. It’s a nationwide crisis of youth addiction, fueled by thousands of kid-friendly flavors and massive doses of nicotine.”
The website also noted that according to the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), over 2.1 million U.S. youth used e-cigarettes in 2023 and is a serious public health problem. What is it about tobacco that makes it hard to give up? The CDC stated that nicotine is the main addictive drug in tobacco.
The agency also stated that inside the brain, nicotine triggers the release of chemicals that make people feel good. As nicotine stimulates parts of the brain over and over, your brain gets used to having nicotine.
In “How to Eat to Live,” Book 1, Pages 111-112, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad writes, “If you want to live, stop smoking and chewing the poisonous weed (tobacco).
Some of us are foolish enough to refer to our parents who chewed it and were 75 or 80 years old. That does not mean it was not harming them. Any medical scientist will tell you that the tobacco weed is a very poisonous weed.
The poison it contains is called nicotine. The full extent of the poisonous nicotine has not yet been known to scientists. Nicotine produces a tar-like substance wherever it is used, on the lips, fingers, and in the mouth, all the way down to the lungs.
Manufacturers are trying to put something like a filter on cigarettes that will keep the nicotine from going into your mouth, but this will not prevent you from getting some of it into your body.
Tobacco is a weed that should not be used.” Smoking has been implicated in both male and female infertility. There are more than 4,000 chemicals that are inhaled in one puff of a cigarette.
These chemicals are totally foreign to the body. Heavy metals such as Cadmium are present in cigarette smoke and have been linked over and over again to low sperm quality. These toxic heavy metals have also been found in the follicular fluid that the eggs are growing in and have been implicated in female infertility.
In “How To Eat To Live,” Book 1, Page 112, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad warned against tobacco use, “Tobacco and alcoholic beverages also affect the organs of reproduction of young men.
You should never use tobacco, whiskey, beer or wine. They ruin the reproductive organs and waste away the man power. Tobacco and alcoholic beverages also have this destructive effect upon the reproductive organs of women.”
Former United States Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin teamed up with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Assistant Secretary Dr. Howard Koh and put together a comprehensive 700-page report on the damaging effects of smoking and secondhand smoke exposure on the body.
The report, “How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Diseases,” was published in 2010.
Sebelius and Koh stressed that there is absolutely no “safe” level of cigarette smoke exposure. Even one cigarette causes real biological changes in the body.
“We didn’t know the fact that when you inhale one cigarette, it affects the lining of blood vessels,” Sebelius said. “One cigarette or the exposure to secondhand smoke may cause a heart attack. We didn’t know that, and we didn’t know how that happened.”
Secondhand smoke is just as dangerous as smoking. There are no safe levels of exposure. Children’s bodies are still developing, and exposure to the poisons in secondhand smoke puts them at risk of severe respiratory diseases and can hinder the growth of their lungs.
Secondhand smoke is a known cause of low birth weight, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, middle ear infection, and other diseases.
Some of the toxins contained in secondhand smoke are: arsenic, benzene, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, ethylene oxide, nickel, polonium-210, vinyl chloride. Tactics such as using air cleaners, airing out buildings, and creating separate smoking and non-smoking sections do not prevent non-smokers’ exposure to secondhand smoke.
According to the American Cancer Society, the only way non-smokers can be completely protected from secondhand smoke indoors is to ban all indoor smoking.
Third-hand smoke is generally considered to be residual nicotine and other chemicals left on a variety of indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke. This residue is thought to react with common indoor pollutants to create a toxic mix.
This toxic mix of third-hand smoke contains cancer-causing substances, posing a potential health hazard to nonsmokers who are exposed to it, especially children.
Third-hand smoke residue builds up on surfaces over time and resists normal cleaning. Third-hand smoke can’t be eliminated by airing out rooms, opening windows, using fans or air conditioners, or confining smoking to only certain areas of a home. Third-hand smoke remains long after smoking has stopped.
Shawntell Muhammad can be contacted at [email protected]
