 By Ji Hyun Lim
Neal, 18, Kevin, 18, and Jill*, 17, are addicted to drugs. Their habit, however, carries few social consequences. They lead normal lives. And so far they haven’t had any major health problems. Their vice: smoking.
“I use to think I could stop anytime,” said Neal, who’s been smoking for three years. “I tried to stop, but it’s hard to stop because it’s around me. I’m 18 now, and I can buy it. I’d stop a whole year and someway, somehow, I’d get back into it. I think stress from school and family made me start again,” explains Neal.
“My first cigarette is after lunch,” Jill said. “Lately, I’ve been cutting down because I can’t breathe as well as before. Every time I run, I get short of breath. I smoke half a pack a day; my friends smoke more than I do.”
Increasingly, Asian American youth are lighting up. But, arguably, few realize the deadly consequences of their habit. According to the American Lung Association, an estimated 430,000 Americans die from diseases directly related to smoking each year. Smoking is responsible for one in five U.S. deaths annually, and costs some $100 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.
The American Legacy Foundation, created by the November 1998 settlement agreement between states and the tobacco industry, conducted a study called “A First Look Report: Pathways to Established Smoking.”
The report analyzed “The National Youth Tobacco Survey” (NYTS), which reported a seven-fold increase in smoking among Asian American youth from seventh to twelfth grade. While smoking rates for Asian Americans in middle school are about half of those of other ethnic groups — 5.5 percent of Asians in middle school smoked compared to 11.2 percent of Hispanics, 11.3 percent of African Americans, and 10.7 percent of whites — the gap in prevalence narrows in high school.
In high school, a third of Asian Americans smoke in twelfth grade — the second highest rate, just under the rate for white students.
Darren Brown of Asian Health Services explained that smoking habits can be traced to family and cultural influences. He also believes smoking is more prevalent in Southeast Asian families and low-income families.
“If you look at Asian countries where Asian servicemen have played a role in the last 100 years, they always bring to those countries chocolates and cigarettes,” Brown said. “It’s a way to hook the population to a new product — specifically, to refugees from Southeast Asia.”
But nicotine addiction is not just a problem within the API community. Across the board in all age groups and ethnic categories, smoking has increased. A Legacy 1999 survey examined more than 35,000 people. Approximately 2.7 million or nine percent of youth ages 11-19 were “established smokers,” defined as those who smoked at least 20 days of the past 30 days and smoked more than 100 cigarettes during their lifetimes. Moreover, Legacy reported 16.5 million teens — including non-daily smokers and experimenters — are at risk for established smoking. An estimated one million 11-year-olds are among those at risk.
“The issue of teen addiction to tobacco products is serious, and more funds from the tobacco settlement with states must be dedicated to youth prevention and cessation programs,” said Joseph Califano, current president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) and the former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “We cannot pass up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reduce economic, personal, and social costs of tobacco on our society.”
In 1998, West Bay Filipino Multi-Service Center lost funding for its anti-tobacco programs. Since then, youth are more susceptible to smoking than ever, according to staff member Eric Fructuoso. When the center had money for the program, it would send a group to schools to conduct tobacco prevention workshops. They also sponsored an anti-smoking mural in the outer Mission in Daly City. Their ultimate goal was to eliminate the Joe Camel ads that targeted youth.
“They tried to ban the whole Joe Camel character [several years ago],” Fructuoso said. “The whole thing was geared toward young people because it was a cartoon. It’s way too easy to have kids relate to that.”
He added that some of the youth he sees smoke because of peer pressure. “They get a new pair of Jordans that match with the shirt, the pants, the socks, the hat — cigarettes are an accessory.”
That’s true for Jill, at least. “I smoked to fit in,” she said. “At first, I didn’t like the taste of it. The first time, smoking was kind of harsh. I coughed. After a year, I got used to it.”
Kevin, who has smoked for the past two years, is trying to quit.
“I try to avoid it, not carry it around, not have it or be in places where people smoke,” he said. But that can be difficult. “The people I hang out with are Asians, and they smoke. There’s more Asians smoking than ever.”
* Neil, Kevin and Jill’s names have been changed. |
