Social Smoking is On the Rise

By Kelly Turner on November 12th, 2009

• Share
• Link to StumbleUpon
• 1 Comment

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say that while daily tobacco smoking has decreased, non-daily smoking has increased in most states.

Social smokers are those who do not smoke daily, but rather only in social situations, bumming cigarettes from friends at gatherings, and rarely buying any themselves. Social smokers tend to be younger, female, and better educated than daily or heavy smokers, and usually partake in the cancer sticks while drinking, particularly while binge drinking at college parties.

I am in this age group, and within my group of friends I too have seen the amount of social smoking increase. A study in the journal of Tobacco and Nicotine has attributed an increase in occasional smoking to the smoking bans in restaurants and workplaces, as it just isn’t convenient or realistic to smoke daily.

I know from experience with my friends that no-smoking laws that have been passed in our area, which prohibit smoking indoors and within 25 feet of business doorways, has banded my smoking friends together, and have them making frequent trips outside whenever we get together.

Whenever the group of heavy smokers gets up to leave and have a smoke, the rare non-smoking few are left to sit and wait until the majority of our group returns. This then leads to some “non-smokers” heading outside with the smokers so as to not miss out on the conversation, which then usually leads to a bummed drag or even a full cig. Whether these people would smoke regularly if there was no ban, or wouldn’t smoke at all is unknown, so it’s hard to tell if the ban is helping or hurting. With the number of regular smokers decreasing one would have to assume, overall, it’s a success.

But ask any of those social smokers if they consider themselves a cigarette smoker, and they will say no. I don’t quite know what the official criteria is (buying your own pack? Smoking at least once everyday?), but I think for most it just eases their mind to fool themselves into believing they aren’t doing anything detrimental to their health.

The danger is that occasional smoking does has serious negative health consequences. Those who smoke occasionally often aren’t concerned with quitting smoking because they feel they aren’t truly addicted, or it isn’t an issue. However, even occasional smoking has been linked to osteoporosis, heart disease and high blood pressure.

Each cigarette you smoke harms your health. The best way to avoid the consequences of cigarette smoke is not to smoke, period. No matter how infrequent it may be.