Quitters Sometimes Win

Let me explain. The narrative is that quitters never win, but to what extent? Can a reason be just to

quit? YES. Don't be afraid to quit! Smoking that is. I can't remember the last time I saw an anti-smoking ad. When I was little I would see them constantly. But over the years it became, dare I say, normalized?

Remember this? Pulp Fiction made it's debut in 1994. That was 29 years ago and to this day, it is still one of the most popular movie posters to this day. Granted, it is an aesthetic poster but it's so popular that the cigarette in her right hand is seen as an important element to the picture. In fact, throughout the whole movie we see Uma Thurman's character constantly smoking. I mean, did she do anything else? It also wasn't just her character, we see a number of characters smoking. Lights, camera, smoke, am I right? And still, it is one of the most popular movies to this day. Let's just pretend smoking wasn't added to the movie. Would it be the same? Would it still be as popular? Let's see. Did you notice the cigarette was missing in the picture?

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SMOKIN' SCENES.. LITERALLY

Now, let's talk about how often tobacco is shown in the screen. It can be so common that you probably don't realize they're doing it. If I was to ask you "What's the last cigarette scene you've watched?" Would you be able to name it? According to Truth Initiative there were nearly 500 depictions of tobacco in TV streaming services. Researchers concluded that among these were the most popular amoung youth and youth adults. You know Stranger Things? A show about KIDS, young kids at that, witnessing supernatural forces is one of the most streamed shows on Netflix. It racked up 7.2 billion minutes of streaming from May to June after the fourth season premiered. “While everybody was watching, but no one was paying attention, we’ve experienced a pervasive re-emergence of smoking imagery that is glamorizing and renormalizing a deadly habit to millions of impressionable young people,” said Truth Initiative CEO and President Robin Koval." These types of shows show smoking in a positive light. It's seen as this sort of cool, rebellious, and edgy image. Billy, from Stanger Things, fit all that criteria. I give you exhibit A below. Dreamy right?

I do admit it though. I get it, I get the appeal, BUT I know the consequences of smoking. So smoking is not something I would ever think about doing. However, we are talking about the younger generation here, kids are still impressionable. They're not going to look at it the same way I do. Even if they are told how bad smoking is, would they listen? This was so common that Langley Advance Times reported that Netflix had made the choice to cut down on the smoking scenes. This came after Truth Initiative, an anti-smoking group, criticized Netflix for all the smoking scenes in their original content. Their biggest culprit for this? Stranger Things. After this, the decision was made by Netflix that going forward, smoking and e-cigarettes would not be featured in shows with a rating of TV-14 or below. They would allow exceptions to this rule that would would permit smoking scenes but only if it was for the purpose of "historical accuracy." Although this does not limit smoking scenes to none, it's still better than 500 depictions of it... right?

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CONSEQUENCES OF BEING COOL

Now, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Exactly what are the consequences of tobacco? According to the CDC, more than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking. How has it been able to get this bad? People understand the consequences but they still choose to smoke. When I think about smoking I think about Terri H. who was the face for an anti-smoking ad. Here she is. I remember vividly how deep her voice was and how much of a struggle it was for her to talk. Guess why she’s wearing a scarf. She has a hole in her throat. No, I don't mean that metaphorically or vaguely she has a literal hole in the middle of her throat. It's obvious too. I remember her words, “If you don’t start, you never have to worry about stopping,” she said." That was enough for me. She

would come on my TV screen so many times. I thought "why do they air this so much?" Now I know. It was enough to get through to me, but was not enough for millions of other Americans. Sadly, Terri died in 2013 from smoking-related cancer. She was 53. She became a statistic. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. Smoking is the best.. at being bad for you. But do you think smoking only effects the smoker? Oh no no no no. CDC reported cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day. That means that OTHER people are affected by smoking as well. That is why whenever I walk by someone smoking in public I hold my breath every time. Can't be too careful. In fact, according to the CDC there is no sage level of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS). It's so risky that even a brief exposure can cause immediate harm. Exposure can lead to health problems like heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. So how do we do it? How do we get others to stop smoking so that it benefits us too? If someone does smoke, it's not too late, it's not too late to quit.The benefits of quitting can literally start in as little as 20 minutes. The American Lung Association detailed that 20 minutes after you quit, your heart rate drops to a normal level. In 24 hours, the risk of heart attack is significantly reduced and in 15 years time your risk of coronary heart disease is the same as that of a nonsmoker.

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CONCLUSION

To conclude, the biggest difference that can be made is the biggest influence in our day to day lives; TV. Truth Initiative stated that thirty-seven percent of adolescents who start smoking do so because of smoking images they saw in movies. Luckily, some studios have endorsed the policy to decrease tobacco depictions in their youth-related films. Studios that include Comcast, Disney, Fox, Sony, Time Warner and Viacom. Below is a chart that shows the depiction of Tobacco in movies dated from 2018 to 2019. Although, we do see a decrease in numbers in 2020, it was reported by the Truth Initiative that there were 2,386 total tobacco incidents in the top 2021 films. This number more than doubled from 986 total incidents in 2020 films. Tobacco incidents are the number of times tobacco products (e.g., cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and pipe products) appear in a film.

So, as we can see the smoking scenes don't seem to be slowing down. It looked like they could've in 2020 but 2021 came around and the smoking scenes thought "This is our year." What do you think? Do you see an increase or decrease in the future? Now that more studios have agreed to show less smoking scenes, I'm hopeful we'll see a significant amount of these types and an even less amount of smoking in the public. Maybe there will be no smoking rooms available in hotels or smokers getting breaks from work to smoke, I mean what is that about? But most of all, I wanna be able to walk in public and see see someone smoking. Obviously, because of the exposure but also because I can only hold my breath for so long you know.