Sec 2 Project Work

2010

Smoking

Class: 2-5

Project Group Members:

Jason Sim Jia You

Thiang Wan Terng

Ke shang

Ng Yan sheng

Teacher-Mentor: Mr Alex Hu
Content page:

Title……………………………………………………………………………………………………….1

Content page…………………………………………………………………………………………….2

1. Introduction to Smoking…………………………………………………………………………..…3

1.1 Objective of research………………………………………………………………......…….…3

2. Origins of Smoking……………………………………………………………………………..……4

2.1 Background of smoking in Singapore…………………………………………………..…….8

3. Why do people smoke……………………………………………………………………………...10

4. Harms of smoking…………………………………………………………………………………...11

4.1 Expert’s views on smoking……………………………………………………………….…...12

5. How to quit smoking………………………………………………………………….………….….13

6. Survey questions…………………………………………………………………………………....15

7. Difficulties faced and limitations……………………………………………………...…………….18

8. How we can help the society…………………........................................................................20

Articles on smoking ………………………………………………………………………………….…21

References……………………………………………………………………………………………....22
 Introduction to smoking

Many people smoke in order to relieve themselves from the stresses and pains of everyday life.

However, rather than relieving the smoker of his or her everyday problems, smoking actually

causes more serious problems. Lung cancer and other dangerous health issues can affect both

the smoker and the person who breathes in second hand smoke, resulting in shorter life spans for

both. And with the amount of money being spent on cigarettes, smokers are in effect buying their

own deaths.

OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT

1. Identify the harmful effects of smoking.

2. To counter the myths of “benefits” from smoking.

3. To increase awareness about smoking health risk.

4. To Prevent Youth from smoking.

 Origins of smoking

The history of smoking dates back to as early as 5000 BC in shamanistic rituals. Many ancient

civilizations, such as the Babylonians, Indians and Chinese, burnt incense as a part of religious

rituals, and so did the Israelites and the later Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches. Smoking in

Americas probably had its origins in the incense-burning ceremonies of shamans but was later

adopted for pleasure. The smoking of tobacco and various other hallucinogenic drugs was used to

achieve trances and to come into contact with the spirit world. Before modern times, substances such

as cannabis and clarified butter have been consumed through pipes, with stems of various lengths.

In 1612, six years after the settlement of Jamestown, John Rolfe was credited as the first settler to

successfully raise tobacco as a cash crop. The demand quickly grew as tobacco, referred to as

"golden weed", reviving the Virginia join stock company from its failed gold expeditions.  In order to

meet demands from the old world, tobacco was grown in succession, quickly depleting the land. This

became a motivator to settle west into the unknown continent, and likewise an expansion of tobacco

production.  

A Frenchman named Jean Nicot introduced tobacco to France in 1560. Like tea, coffee and opium,

tobacco was just one of many intoxicants that were originally used as a form of medicine. Tobacco

was introduced around 1600 by French merchants and the Portuguese brought the commodity to

southern Africa, establishing the popularity of tobacco throughout all of Africa by the 1650s.

Soon after its introduction to the Old World, tobacco came under frequent criticism from state and

religious leaders. Murad IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire1623-40 was among the first to attempt a

smoking ban by claiming it was a threat to public moral and health. In Japan, some of the earliest

tobacco plantations were scorned by the shogun as being a threat to the economy by letting valuable

farmland go to waste for the use of a recreational drug instead of being used to plant food crops.

By the mid-1600s every major civilization had been introduced to tobacco smoking and in many cases

had already assimilated it into the native culture, despite the attempts of many rulers to stamp the

practice out with harsh penalties or fines. Tobacco, both product and plant, followed the major trade

routes to major ports and markets, and then on into the hinterlands. The English language
term smoking was coined in the late 1700s, before then the practice was referred to as drinking

smoke.

The growth remained stable until the American Civil War in 1860s, from which the primary labour

force transition from slavery to cropping. This compounded with a change in demand, lead to the

industrialization of tobacco production with the cigarette. 

Opium
In the 1800s the practice of smoking opium became common. Previously it had only been eaten, and

then primarily for its medical properties. A massive increase in opium smoking in China was more or

less directly instigated by the British trade deficit with dynasty China. As a way to amend this problem,

the British began exporting large amounts of opium grown in the Indian colonies. The social problems

and the large net loss of currency led to several Chinese attempts to stop the imports which

eventually culminated in the Opium Wars.

Opium smoking later spread with Chinese immigrants and spawned many infamous opium dens in

China towns around South and Southeast Asia and Europe. In the latter half of the 1800s, opium

smoking became popular in the artistic community in Europe, especially Paris in artists'

neighbourhoods such as and Montparnasse and Montmartre being virtual "opium capitals". While

opium dens that catered primarily to emigrant Chinese continued to exist in China Towns around the

world, the trend among the European artists largely abated after the outbreak of World War I. The

consumption of Opium abated in China during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.
Social stigma

With the modernization of cigarette production compounded with the increased life expectancies

during the 1920s, adverse health effects began to become more prevalent. In Germany, anti-smoking

groups first published advocacy against the consumption of tobacco in 1912 and 1932. In 1929, Fritz

Lickint of Dresden, Germany, published a paper containing formal statistical evidence of a lung

cancer–tobacco link. During the Great depression Adolf Hitler condemned his earlier smoking habit as

a waste of money, and later with stronger assertions. This movement was further strengthened with

Nazi reproductive policy as women who smoked were viewed as unsuitable to be wives and mothers

in a German family.

The movement in Nazi Germany did reach across enemy lines during the Second World War, as anti-

smoking groups quickly lost popular support. By the end of the Second World War, American cigarette

manufactures quickly re-entered the German black market. Illegal smuggling of tobacco became

prevalent, and leaders of the Nazi anti-smoking campaign were assassinated. As part of the Marshall

Plan, the United States shipped free tobacco to Germany; with 24,000 tons in 1948 and 69,000 tons

in 1949. Per capita yearly cigarette consumption in post-war Germany steadily rose from 460 in 1950

to 1,523 in 1963. By the end of the 1900s, anti-smoking campaigns in Germany were unable to

exceed the effectiveness of the Nazi-era climax in the years 1939–41 and German tobacco health

research was described by Robert N. Proctor as "muted".

Richard Doll in 1950 published research in the British Medical Journal showing a close link between

smoking and lung cancer. Four years later, in 1954 the British Doctors Study, a study of some 40

thousand doctors over 20 years, confirmed the suggestion, based on which the government issued

advice that smoking and lung cancer rates were related. In 1964 the United States Surgeon General's

Report on Smoking and Health likewise began suggesting the relationship between smoking and

cancer, which confirmed its suggestions 20 years later in the 1980s.

From 1965 to 2006, rates of smoking in the United States have declined from 42% to 20.8%. A

significant majority of those who quit were professional, affluent men. Despite this decrease in the

prevalence of consumption, the average number of cigarettes consumed per person per day

increased from 22 in 1954 to 30 in 1978. This paradoxical event suggests that those who quit smoked

less, while those who continued to smoke moved to smoke more light cigarettes. This trend has been
paralleled by many industrialized nations as rates have either levelled-off or declined. In

the developing world, however, tobacco consumption continues to rise at 3.4% in 2002. In Africa,

smoking is in most areas considered to be modern, and many of the strong adverse opinions that

prevail in the West receive much less attention. Today Russia leads as the top consumer of tobacco

followed by Indonesia, Laos, Ukraine, Belarus, Greece, Jordan, and China. The World Health

Organization has begun a program known as the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) in order to reduce rates

of consumption in the developing world.

Other substances

In the early 1980s, organized international drug trafficking grew. However, compounded with

overproduction and tighter legal enforcement for the illegal product, drug dealers decided to convert

the powder to "crack" - a solid, smoke-able form of cocaine that could be sold in smaller quantities, to

more people. This trend abated in the 1990s as increased police action coupled with a robust

economy deterred many potential candidates to forfeit or fails to take up the habit.

Recent years shows an increase in the consumption of

vaporized heroin, methamphetamine and Phencyclidine.
 Background of smoking in Singapore.

Smoking is widely known to be harmful to human beings. It is known to cause illness such as Lung

Cancer, Heart Disease, Strokes and many more.

In Singapore, Smoking prevalence is among the lowest in the world. This is due to our National

Smoking Program (Launched in 1970s). The concerted efforts have managed to drastically reduce the

smoking prevalence from above 25% to below 14% currently.

However this still means that about 360,000 Singaporean smokes. Also, there is a trend toward

Youth smokers especially for woman. More than half of the woman smokers are below 29 years old

and their smoking rates has risen sharply from 5% in 1998 to 9% in 2007.

While the proportion of men who smoke daily decreased significantly from 27.1% in 1998 to 21.8%

in 2004, the proportion of women smokers remained at about the same level (3.2% in 1998 and 3.5%

in 2004). The proportion of young women (18-29 age group) who were daily smokers rose from 5.2%

in 1998 to 6.6% in 2004. In this group, smoking was more common among Malays (17.0%) compared

to 5.1% among Chinese and 2.4% among Indian young women.

According to a statistic provided by the Singapore Heart Foundation, the prevalence of daily

cigarette smoking among adults declined significantly from 15.2% in 1998 to 12.6% in 2004. Daily

cigarette smoking was much more prevalent among men (21.8%) than women (3.5%). Malay men

had the highest prevalence of daily cigarette smoking (29.9%), compared with Indian men (22.4%)

and Chinese men (20.5%). The drop in the percentage of smokers is most significant among the

Malay males (from 43% in 1998 to 30% in 2004) and Indian males (from 31% in 1998 to 22% in

2004).

The Singapore government tried everything they can to further reduce the number of smoking

population. They placed a very high tax on imported cigarettes and made the production companies to

print pictures of the disgusting consequences on the boxes. This greatly reduced the number of

smokers. Due to the drop in percentage of the smoking population, the government has made most

restaurants allocate more tables to non-smokers. There was a sudden increase in youths smoking

because of the illegally imported cigarettes. Those cigarettes are sold at a much cheaper price than

taxed brands as tax is not collected from them. Youths could not afford the luxury of smoking
everyday and they are not allowed to buy any cigarettes. So they either stole from their parents or

bought illegal cigarettes with their pocket money.

Smoking in Singapore was first banned in selected areas in October 1970, and the government

has gradually added to the number of areas that must be smoke-free, which includes bus

interchanges and shelters, public toilets, public swimming complexes, hawker centres, coffeeshops

and entertainment outlets.

On 1 July 2007, the ban was extended to entertainment nightspots, including pubs, bars, lounges,

dance clubs, and night clubs. The owner of the premises is legally responsible for the non-smoking of

the customers.
 Why do people smoke?

There are not many smokers about who started smoking after the age of eighteen. In fact, the majority

of smokers took up the habit in their early or mid teens. 

At such a young age, you don't really think about the health risks of smoking and you certainly do not

realise how addictive smoking can be. As a teenager you probably think that you can try smoking a

few times and then take it or leave it. 

However, the reality is that it doesn't take long to become addicted to nicotine and smoking. Within a

short period of time, children can experience the same cravings and withdrawal symptoms as an

adult, as well as smoke as many cigarettes or more. 

Peer pressure plays an important part in why children smoke. Many children start smoking because

their friends have tried it or smoke themselves. 

Those children may have started as they have grown up in an environment where their parents,

grandparents and older siblings smoke, and so they smoke in order to look and act like them. 

Other children start smoking as an act of rebellion or defiance against their parents or people of

authority. 
 Harms of smoking

Everybody knows that smoking is never good for one’s health, but what they do not know is how

serious it is and that it can destroy one’s life and cause death.

Firstly, every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases such as

cancer, caused by smoking cigarettes. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of

these deaths will occur in middle age.

The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases

your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. This can cause heart

attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers

have to amputate their limbs.

Tar coats your lungs like soot and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup

(210 g) of tar in a year. Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers would usually

take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs. Men who

smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. Heart disease and strokes

are also more common among smokers than non-smokers.

Habitual cigarette smoking leads to serious health complications, including Heart disease,

cardiovascular disease, and various life threatening cancers. If they continue smoking, the probability

of developing one or more of the major complications of smoking is 100%.

By the time one has been a pack-a-day smoker for 10 years or so, extensive damage has already

been done. By 20 years, much of the damage is irreversible and progresses more rapidly. After 10

years of smoking, each cigarette may do as much damage to the body as three or more packs did

when a smoker first started.

 Expert’s views on smoking

Dr Charles Saunders, of the BMA's Scottish Council, said the organisation was backing a

member's bill seeking a ban on smoking in public places.

He said: "Smoking remains the biggest single cause of preventable death in Scotland."For a

number of years the BMA has been campaigning for the introduction of legislation to create smoke-

free public places.

First Minister Jack McConnell ruled out an outright ban on smoking in public places. He said there

would be an "open-ended consultation" on the issue but this would not include specific proposals for a

complete ban on lighting up in pubs and restaurants.

Heartstats also reported that there is considerable support among the British public for much

greater restrictions on smoking in public places. Over 85% of adults agree smoking should be

restricted in restaurants, work and other public places. A lower proportion, just over half, agree

smoking should be restricted in pubs.

Public support for smoking restrictions has increased in recent years, in both smokers and non-

smokers.
 How to quit smoking

It is very hard to quit smoking. Everyone, including non smokers knows this as a fact. Tremendous

will power is required to quit smoking once and for all as smoking is very addictive. The fact of the

matter is that you actually need a lot of determination to quit smoking once and for all. However, there

are many methods to quit smoking.

Stop Smoking Aids

Do not depend on aids.  Avoid general smoking aids like patches, nasal sprays and chewing gum.

Nicotine patches are designed to deliver small quantities of nicotine in your bloodstream. This method

is nothing but a satisfaction of nicotine craving. The only fact is that there is absence of dangerous

tars and poisonous gases which are found in the cigarettes. This is a convenient method to reduce

cravings. Unfortunately, there is a slight twist in the use of NRT based aids. The user of NRT based

aids may become addicted to the aid, itself

Hypnotherapy

This method is moderately effective in giving up smoking. The smoker, willingly subjects him or

herself to a hypnosis session. Smokers will also be able to quit smoking faster if they have the

willpower. There are also other forms of therapies such as aromatherapy, acupuncture and

acupressure.

Will power

Will power is also a very important factor in controlling smoking. Will power is nothing but a state of

mind. It is in fact very difficult to implement this state of mind. People of low will power find it difficult to

quit smoking whereas people with high will power if find it easier to quit smoking.
Counselling

One will definitely need counsellingif they want to boost their will power.  Counselling is extremely

important for behavioural support. It is important that you have one to one counselling sessions as it

can help quitting smoking easier. One will also need to attend group meeting of experts and like

minded people. 

Medication

There are certain medications that are available only on a doctor’s prescription. These are drugs

which are either sedatives or relaxants and help in controlling and calming the nerves. Doctors can

prescribe such drugs either on an SOS basis or on a regular basis.

 Survey questions

In order to know more about how people who smoke think of smoking, we decided to conduct a

survey. The surveys were given to people who are smoking and below are the result of 30 surveys we

have collated.

From this graph, we can see that most people

Why do you smoke? find smoking a way to relieve stress. However

smoking to relieve stress is unhealthy.

Therefore, when we gave out our flyers, we

Peer Pressure
Relieve stress added tips for relieving stress. Hoping that
To look cool
Others smokers will resort to other methods to relieve

stress instead of smoking.

From this graph, we can see that although

Do you know smoking harms many people knew that smoking would
your body?
deteriorate a person’s health, they could not

kick the habit and continue to smoke. We feel

Yes that they should consult doctors and take

No
medication. Therefore, we gave the phone

numbers of some doctors by putting them in

the flyers.
 We can see that many people will not be
Would you buy a box of willing to buy cigarettes if it costs $20.
cigarettes if it costs $20?
Therefore, I think that by raising the price of

cigarettes in shops, many people will stop

buying or buy fewer as they would feel that it is

too expensive.

Yes No
Maybe

From this graph, we can see that not many

How long have you been people have smoked for a very long time. We
smoking?
feel that we should try to make them quit

smoking as soon as possible before the

effects are irreversible.

1 year
3 years
5 years
more than 5
years

We can see that many smokers had tried to

Have you ever of thought quit smoking; they could not kick the habit and
quitting smoking?
continue to smoke. I feel that they should

Yes consult doctors and take medication.

No
Therefore, we gave the phone numbers of

some doctors by putting them in the flyer.

 From this graph, we can see that there are
How often do you smoke? many people who smoke more than one

cigarette per day. This will seriously

deteriorate one’s health. I think that the

government should increase the price of

cigarettes in shops as people will find it

Once a day expensive and purchase lesser cigarettes.
More than once
a day
Once a week

From this graph, we can see that many

When did you start smoking? people have not smoked for a very long

time; I hope that the government will try to

make them quit smoking by putting up anti-

smoking advertisements to discourage

smoking before the effects are irreversible.

Below 18 years
old
18-25 years old
26-33 years old
 DIFFICULTIES FACED
This project work is a fun, but challenging task which every sec 2 group have to complete. We have

about 2 months of preparation for this project. There are many challenges and difficulties throughout

this whole process. These difficulties we faced come in various form.

Firstly, the topic we chose” smoking” is a topic where people usually refuse to allow us to conduct

surveys. We went to various places individually to collect data, but most of the smokers are unwilling

to give us more information. To solve this problem, we have to rely on smokers that we know- be it

neighbors or relatives. We have to put in extra effort to find more friends who are willing to give

information. This is to ensure credibility on our statistics.

Secondly, there are internal problems in our group. There are team members who refuse to co-

operate and slack off. We refuse to point who they are, since they tries to make amends in the last

few weeks. However, at the later part of the project, we managed to co-operate and complete our

project in time.

Thirdly, they are external problem like the lack of time and the inability to find a suitable time for the

whole group to work on our project. There are many examinations going on, other project and CCA.

We are unable to find a suitable time to do our project in a complete group due to similar reason.

However, we are able to do some work individually in the holidays, which boosted our progress of this

project work.
 How our project helped the society of Singapore.

We have done much surveys and research on the different component of smoking, mainly includes

The harms and effects on smoking, the cause of smoking, the reason why people smoking and much

more.

We had done much research to get accurate statistics on smoking. We would not help by giving

inaccurate statistic or biased statistic, so we have done our research thoroughly and checked through

it. However, it was pretty laborious and we ha to spend hours in front of the computer, trying to find

the right information.

In order to help the society to stop smoking, we have to create public awareness. This is done in the

following.

- Facebook

- Prezi (presentation on the research content of smoking)

- Giving out of flyers.

Facebook is a social networking website where everyone we know can connect with each other

through the use of a computer. Nowadays, many teenagers and adults communicate and express

their opinions through these social networking websites such as facebook and twitter. Using such

technology will save us time, yet allow us to let more people understand more about smoking,

allowing us to easily spread and update our knowledge about smoking easily and quickly. Thus by

creating a facebook page, it will be seen by everybody around the world and we will be able to

encourage anti-smoking.

Prezi is a form of presentation which allows viewers to view and understand much more about

smoking. Prezi is an interesting website that has many functions. This form of presentation would not

create boredom, but allows other to learn more about smoking in an intuitive manner. People will learn

much more through looking through this presentation and hopefully, more smokers would quit

smoking after looking through our prezi.

Giving out of flyers in undoubtly the most laborious part of this project. We gave out the flyers to

people we see smoking around Bishan area. In our flyers, we included the harms of smoking, how

they can benefit by not smoking, ways to quit smoking and the phone numbers of some counsellors

which the smokers can seek consultation. Although some of our flyers end up at the bin, many of the

readers had understood more about smoking though our flyers.

We hope that throughout these methods, we can play a part in creating public awareness in the

society. Smoking is never good for health so let’s work together to make a better society for

Singapore.

Thank you for your kind attention. We hoped that you have enjoyed our presentation and report.
References:

1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking

2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoking

3)http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html

4)http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/

5)http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/house/smoking.html

6)http://www.hpb.gov.sg/hpb/default.asp?pg_id=979

7)http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tobaccorelateddiseases/a/smokingrisks.htm

8)http://smokingharms.com/

9)http://www.freedom2choose.info/history_of_smoking.php

10h)ttp://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7486/313

11)Http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/why-people-smoke.php

12)http://www.healthline.com/sw/wsc-what-are-your-reasons-for-smoking

13) http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/whydopeoplesmoke/

14) http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall98/Wise/page2.html