Philippine E-Journals

The Real Cost of Smoking: Who Bears the Final Burden?

Ernesto O. Golosino

Discipline: Health

 

Abstract:

Smoking is a highly communicable form of vices. It easily attracts people from all walks of life who savors it out of curiosity and later on become addicted. The competing interests between government and tobacco enterprises makes smoking not only a social disease but an economic variable. Intense anti-tobacco campaign were launched by different lobbyist including the scientific communities but to no avail. These efforts were eaten up by the giant leap of tobacco manufacturers. Heavy investments were poured-in just to drive strong marketing appeal. Not only that they conquered the market, they also made it to the legislative and to the executive branches of our government. Heavy logrolling were done rendering our laws which intend to curb smoking inutil. To chronicle the fate society is heading to, this paper attempts to uncover the real picture of the issue using qualitative methods. Documents from the antagonists and pro smoking were gathered in order to draw unbiased conclusions. The results indicated that the benefits offered by this industry is very minimal relative to the greater damage it caused to society. Hence, it is imperative that government must act with dispatch in solving this problem.