By 1999, the harms of smoking were so clear that the firm Philip Morris had to acknowledge the following on its website: “There is overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that smoking causes lung cancer , heart disease, emphysema, and other serious diseases. in smokers “. Around that time, Sam Saunders, a mathematician at Washington State University, explained the damage caused by this addiction and the difficulty in perceiving its risk with the analogy of the so-called frog effect: imagine that, due to a manufacturing error, out of every 25,000 packages that go to the market, one had a cigarette full of dynamite. With current production, this explosive would cause about 10,000 deaths a day worldwide, if it weren’t for the fact that perhaps almost everyone would quit smoking in the weeks following the broadcast of the warning.
The actual effects of use are far worse than those reflected in the metaphor: WHO estimates that drug-related illnesses kill nearly six million people a year ; of them, half a million are passive smokers. “Why would everyone kick the habit in the case of the bomb and the same is not the case in reality, despite the brutal effects of tobacco ?” Saunders wondered. He explained it by the difficulty we have in detecting subtle dangers. The dynamite is explosive: we would go from being healthy to being dismembered. However, the consequences of smoking are noticed little by little. The mathematician compares our reasoning ability with that of frogs: “How would you cook one? If you put it in very hot water, it will run away because it will perceive the danger. But if you throw it in a warm container and let it get used to it, it will be able to go. raising the temperature little by little while the animal resigns itself to being boiled “.
More them than them
The characteristic that enhances the dangerousness of smoking is that its most negative consequences take time to manifest themselves, and it is not easy to perceive them . Contrary to what happens with other addictions, it is not easy to distinguish a smoker from a non-smoker. That’s one reason so many people are still hooked, although the number has dropped since the time Philip Morris made that announcement. Last year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) estimated at 23% –27.6% were men and 18.6% were women– the percentage of Spaniards who smoke daily.
The campaigns that remind us of deaths from this habit speak of probabilities, but, as Saunders recalled, humans, like frogs, are not very good with numbers. Stalin summed it up in one sentence: “A single death is a tragedy; a million, statistics ”. But the numbers can also be made much more eloquent. This effort is carried out by specialists when they say that out of every four people who smoke, two will develop a disease related to the habit, and of these, one will die as a result of it .
Another reason that makes it so difficult to eradicate is the age of onset. We are facing a phenomenon that is actually a pediatric disease, as described by John Schulenberg, from the University of Michigan, in the US This psychologist, one of the leading experts on youth and addictions, recalls that the tobacco habit is It is usually acquired in adolescence, and this plays a determining role in the long term.
Leaders thing
There are experiments that show that teenagers who use cigarettes are perceived by their peers as being tougher, precocious and more sociable . At a stage in life when you are more self-aware and the world is often thought to be watching your movements, getting those labels is essential.
One begins to smoke to resemble the people who do it, and, although in maturity we understand that this pose is unproductive, those connotations remain within us. Furthermore, despite adolescence being left behind, humans are still prone to role models, and those offered by our culture continue to associate smoking with desirable characteristics.
An American Journal of Public Health study that analyzed the influence of actors on viewers’ habits found that fans of Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Bruce Willis are fully aware of the way these stars smoke. In fact, they overestimate that routine of their favorite actors because some are not even smokers, they have learned to imitate the gesture for the movies. Viewers end up linking their way of lighting a cigarette and holding it to their appeal.
The truth is that it is easier not to start with this drug than to quit. Therefore, it would be necessary to think about how much responsibility the media have that have promoted a habit that was known to be harmful for decades. Joe Eszterhas, a screenwriter who wrote several films – Flashdance , Basic Instinct , Showgirls – whose protagonists incited smoking, is one of the diffusers of the epidemic. When he was diagnosed with throat cancer, he wrote ruefully: “I find it difficult to forgive myself. I have been an accessory to countless murders of human beings. I don’t want other people to have my destiny, but I ask Hollywood to stop imposing it on millions of people. “
Hollywood we get frog
Another investigation from San Diego State University, in California (USA), specified how the cinema teaches to ignore its risks, which increases the aforementioned frog effect. After analyzing the highest grossing films of 2002, the study concluded that almost two-thirds of them were smoked. However, the sequels never appeared. In 92% of the cases, the consumption did not bring consequences for the addict and in the remaining 8% the only undesirable effect was a reprimand by another character. This underlined a mental bias shared by many smokers: believing that the only problem with their habit is misunderstanding by others .
In all the films that were analyzed, only two deaths were found due to addiction: a character who explodes the bomb under his car by lighting a cigarette and another who attracts with his cigarette a missile of those that are guided by the rise in temperature. It seems that tobacco is only bad in the presence of military equipment.
What the stories never reflect is the most important thing: the tremendous dependency this drug creates. The study barely found characters who turned to tobacco to satisfy their addiction to nicotine, the main reason for their use.
Although the smoker thinks that he is doing it for enjoyment or to relieve stress, it is evident that it prevents him from enjoying activities that he likes more, which leads him to increase his level of tension. A diner who leaves the table to smoke or an executive who needs to find a place to smoke by leaving a meeting are examples of this self-deception.
Worse than cocaine
We are facing a substance that hooks as much as other more feared drugs. In fact, there are people who quit, but cannot quit smoking. Stephen J. Heishman, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland (USA), recalls that out of every three people who try a cigarette, one becomes addicted, a higher proportion than that of cocaine and heroin. Smokers become dependent. As Heishman recalls, only one in seven who tries to quit succeeds .
Abandoning this drug means going through withdrawal symptoms: anxiety, difficulty falling asleep, irritability… That is why, according to psychologist Jaime González, an expert in the fight against smoking, “to give up tobacco you have to want to do it. It does not matter whether or not one is aware of the real reasons. Many times, the motives are a real mystery even for the person who achieves the goal ”.
It is often said that having a why we already have a how, but, according to González, this is not so true in the case of tobacco: “To the despair of many, the fact that there are clear reasons may not be enough. There are people who have not succeeded even with serious health problems, such as emphysema ”.
Puffs full of pleasures
Experts recall that the biochemical addiction produced by the components of a cigarette is more powerful than we think. We must be aware of the sensations that we are going to abandon. Nicotine triggers the release of a series of hormones –norepinephrine, adrenaline– which, among other effects, help us to be alert, decrease appetite and increase mental efficiency. In addition, it stimulates the central nervous system, and this triggers the production of certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which help us feel less pain and calm anxiety.
For this reason, when quitting it is key to be aware of what the cigarette contributes. Although it is a slow suicide, it has benefits that we must give up . González explains it like this: “It is a mistake to try to convince yourself that smoking does not bring anything good. Sooner or later, those who are trying to quit will find feelings of frustration for which they should be prepared. A cigarette distracts from worries and creates social ties They are powerful reasons for having acquired the habit, which must be identified in order to abandon it. “
The one who resists wins
The last difficulty before us is overcoming the propensity to relapse. This same specialist recalls: “Quitting smoking is relatively simple, the difficult thing is to maintain abstinence. If we do not resist, we will return almost without realizing it, starting with a few puffs. The process is slow and weakens the will. In the end the will win. stronger”.
Nobel Laureate Thomas C. Schelling, a fighter against smoking, provides strong data on the risk of relapse. Although treatments are usually effective in the short term, around 80% of ex-smokers end up succumbing to the habit again . These are figures to take into account when deciding to start the fight against an addiction, which to some may seem sensual, but is surely potentially deadly.
