‘Very Light’ Smoking on Rise Among Young American Women

The study described very light smokers as individuals with a greater awareness of the perils of nicotine consumption and said that these people are less likely to report nicotine dependence than the heavy smokers.

“For the objective of this study, “light smoking” is defined as less than six cigarettes a day”. They were curious about findings suggesting casual smoking-as opposed to the pack-a-day heavy smoking of yore-is growing.

After such results have been publicly revealed, health professionals are discouraging the young adults in trying to experience “light” smoking because of the mere fact that it is never the lesser evil. In addition the study also indicates that average cigarette smoking and the prevalence of smoking in general has decreased. These “very light smokers” were 18 to 20 year-olds, from a minority group and have some college education. Men tend to start smoking earlier, moving on to regular tobacco use by their late teens. This abundance of light smokers could be attributed to the anti-smoking movement, which persuaded people to quit smoking, which they might have done for a while, after which they figured that a few cigarettes will not cause as much dangers as hard-core smoking.

“Social features of college life, including weekend partying, may promote smoking at a very light level among college women”, according to the authors in the report by the magazine.

Concerning part is that young women have been opting for “very light” smoking, which is not good for health.

The vice is told by doctors not to be underestimated and they emphasize that the risk of even very light smoking increases the chance of heart disease three times over, along with other conditions such as lung cancer.

“Making very light smokers aware that even small amounts of tobacco are harmful would be important”, said Carole Holahan, study researcher from the university, via Live Science. Many ads and campaigns pop up every day against the dangers of smoking, but not all possible consequences are known. For him, more efforts should be given to this group of young women who smoke lightly, as per Daily Mail.

“For this reason, practitioners need to be sure to ask their patients, particularly young women, ‘When was the last time you used tobacco.’ If patients are asked if they smoke, the very light and/or nondaily smokers may say no…” This is a pattern attributed to those people who do not smoke at all until they find themselves as part of a social event, when they will enjoy a few cigarettes in the company of their friends.

The researchers at the University of Texas Austin acknowledge that heavy smoking is still declining, but light smoking is increasing.