Daily Doc: BAT, Dec 15, 1977: BAT on getting kids to smoke
Daily Doc: BAT on getting kids to smoke
Title: Dependence on Cigarette Smoking - A Review, Report No. RD1532 Restricted
BAT, Dec 15, 1977
Bates #: 105458896 - 105459086
April 6, 2000
By 1977, British American Tobacco (BAT) had produced this official (restricted) internal report saying that most smokers start during adolescence and that very few people start to smoke once past the age of 20. Furthermore, this report tells us that the more people a child sees smoking around him ("models" and "definers"), the more likely s/he is to become a regular smoker. Following, too, is an interesting observation from this report:
"...of those teenagers smoking more than one cigarette only 15% avoid becoming regular dependent smokers."...a powerful testimony to the product's ability to addict youngsters.
This document makes the case for tobacco control activists to redouble their work to reduce social modeling of smoking behavior (eliminate smoking in public places). Moreover, it provides a strong case for the banning of self-service cigarette displays in stores, since, in addition to seeing adults modeling smoking behavior, the availability of cigarettes is listed as a strong predictor of youth smoking. The statement in the report that
"Anticipation of adulthood [as a factor in starting to smoke] was linked with rebelliousness and delinquency..."...makes it clear that locating self-service cigarette displays where they are extraordinarily easy for children to reach appeals powerfully to children's inclination towards rebelliousness and delinquency in their pursuit of cigarettes, which to them are constantly portrayed as symbols of adulthood (must be 18 to buy, possess etc.). If kids can obtain cigarettes, and if they go on to smoke more than one, the industry is virtually guaranteed customers, according to this report.
Also, notice the the following in the chart at the end of this quote (which I have tried my best to reproduce here). In the chart, factors contributing towards a child becoming a nonsmoker are labeled as negatives (-) and factors increasing the likelihood that a child will smoke are labeled as positives (+).
CITATION
Title: Dependence on Cigarette Smoking - A Review, Report No. RD1532 Restricted
Type of Document: Report
Author: A. Kay Comer
Date: 19771215
Page Count: 191
Site: U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Guildford Document set http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/industrydocs/index.htm
Company: British American Tobacco Company
Bates No. 105458896 - 105459086
URL of page of cited quote: http://outside.cdc.gov:8080/BASIS/ncctld/web/mnimages/DDW?W%3DDETAILSID%3D541%26M%3D100%26K%3D541%26R%3DY%26U%3D1
URL of first page of document: http://outside.cdc.gov:8080/BASIS/ncctld/web/mnimages/DDW?W=DETAILSID=541
QUOTES (from page 96 of the document):
6. INITIATION OF SMOKING BEHAVIOR
The reasons why people start to smoke have not yet been clearly determined....Most of the views concern sociology and psychology since pharmacological effects can only assume importance once smoking has started.
McKennell (137) has examined data for British smokers and concluded that the onset of regular smoking is an adolescent phenomenon. The "age of onset" graph looks like a growth curve for other pubertal or maturation phenomena, starting in the early teens. The largest increment in smoking occurs at 15 to 16 years when most people leave school. By the age of 20 most people have already started to smoke if they are ever going to do so at all.....
Byuner (34) studied ten to 15 year old boys and found that there were four main influences leading them to smoking. These were:
(i) the number of friends who smoke
(ii) anticipation of adulthood
(iii) parents permissiveness towards smoking (iv) whether they were put off by smoking by "the danger of lung cancer"
If all four favored smoking 70% of boys smoked, but if all four were negative influences then none of the boys smoked.
The first influence was the most important. Anticipation of adulthood was linked with rebelliousness and delinquency including drinking, going to coffee bars and dances, staying out late and generally participating in the activities of older boys.
...Mettlin (144) has also suggested that smoking behavior may be largely influenced by persons other than the individual smoker. The sources of influence to which the smoker has greatest exposure have the greatest effects but all sources of influence have some effect. Mettlin defines "models" as those whom the individual takes to be examples of various aspects of cigarette smoking and "definers" as persons to whom the individual has spoken about smoking. If the individual is continually exposed to both models and definers who themselves smoke cigarettes and expect the individual in question to do the same, then he is most likely to smoke and his smoking may be very difficult to change. Since the individual has little control over the behavior of those around him, their attitudes and expectations of him, then he will have difficulty in controlling his own behavior.
...Russell (168) lists the reasons for the first cigarette as curiosity, conformity, bravado or to appear grown-up. He states that the first few cigarettes are invariably unpleasant and with curiosity satisfied by the first cigarette, smoking is only repeated if physical discomfort is outweighed by psychological or social rewards. ....Russell has stated that of those teenagers smoking more than one cigarette only 15% avoid becoming regular dependent smokers (170).
Russell (170) has published a diagram summarizing the positive and negative reinforcers controlling early smoking (Figure 3). He points out also that sensory discomfort will only apply to the first few cigarettes and the unpleasant side-effects of nicotine soon disappear as tolerance develops.
Parental attitude | | Availability of cigarettes
School attitude | | Curiosity
Health risks | | Rebelliousness
Sensory discomfort | | Toughness
Nicotine effects | | Anticipation of adulthood
| | Social confidence
| | Parental example
\/ | Older sibs smoking
| Friends smoking
\/
(-) (+)
Non-smoker ---------------------------> smoker
FIGURE 3
This service is brought to you by the American Lung Association of Colorado ( http://www.alacolo.org/) and Smokescreen ( http://www.smokescreen.org)
To join Doc-Alert, go to http://tobaccodocuments.org/, scroll down to the bottom of the page, enter your email address in the box marked "Daily Document Newsletter," and click *subscribe.*
Visit the Daily Document Archives at http://www.smokescreen.org/list/viewmsgs.cfm?id=66.
Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction, CO
(970) 245-2120
afoxland@gj.net
***********************
Go To: Tobacco BBS HomePage / Resources Page / Health Page / Documents Page / Culture Page / Activism Page
***********************
END OF DOCUMENT