Smoking Trends in Washington - Case Study Example

 Smoking is the leading cause of deaths that could be avoided in the USA totalling 480,000 deaths per annum. More than 16 million people suffer from diseases, such as lung cancer, chronic lung diseases, stroke and pulmonary diseases, which are brought about by smoking (Shelly, 2010).
In Washington State, in particular, tobacco and marijuana have continued to be most widely smoked by youth (Washington State Healthy Youth Survey, 2011). The percentage of those who smoked every day decreased gradually between the years 2005 and 2010 from 17.5 percent to 11.0 percent (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). This implied that many people had quit smoking in this period while others had changed from smoking every day to smoking on some days only. The ability to purchase cigarettes is a product of individual income. Tobacco control advocates have seen an increase in the prices of tobacco resulting in a decline in smoking among the population (Shelly, 2010). Taxes are imposed on tobacco products increases the price of tobacco and hence increase the cost of smoking. This reduces the smoking practice among no income or low-income adults as affordability of tobacco become quite hard (Chaloupka, Straif & Leon, 2011). This could be a reason for people to quit smoking or reduce the rate of smoking. Cigarette smoking among high school seniors declined by a quarter among male students and a half among female students between the years 2001 and 2011 (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2012). The number of people who smoked some days in Washington increased from 2.4 percent to 4.2 percent. This was not gradual as the number had increased to 5.9 and 5.0 percent between 1995 to 2000, and 2005 respectively (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). Because smoking had become expensive between those years, some people may have reduced the frequency at which they smoked from every day to some days. The numbers increase implied that a number of everyday smokers and non-smokers had begun to smoke on some days. The percentage of non-smokers in the state had gradually decreased from 29.9 to 25.5 percent between the years 1995 and 2010 (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). It created an implication that a number of the non-smokers had actually begun smoking. Finally, the number of people who had never smoked in Washington increased from 50.2 to 59.3 percent between the same years (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). The population had increased between those years and it constituted more people who never smoked as the population grew. Smoking is also linked with issues of unemployment. The rate of unemployment in the USA between 1996 and 2005 was 5.5 percent, increasing to 9 percent between 2006 and 2010. This consequently reflected a decline in smoking from 23.4 percent to 17.3 percent (Shelly, 2010).