Purposive Communication 2

A. Drop the information about the impact of tobacco to their health to avoid offending the listeners.

Smoking leads to disease and disability and damages almost every organ in the body. For every person
who dies from smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness. Smoking causes
cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD),
which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases the risk of tuberculosis,
certain eye diseases and immune system problems, including rheumatoid arthritis. Used smoke causes
stroke, lung cancer and coronary heart disease in adults. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at
increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, otitis media, more severe
asthma, respiratory symptoms, and decreased lung growth.

B. Mention the issue but downplay it and recommend that listeners do research and decide for
themselves.

Addiction, in this view, is essentially a change in the unconscious processes that become accustomed to
seeking pleasure through smoking and therefore often emit impulses to light up. The conscious mind, as
the seat of free will, can then choose whether to comply. For the most part, smoking cannot take place
without a certain degree of conscious, voluntary participation, indicating that conscious free will has
adapted to the automatic impulses to smoke. Loss of free will causes the conscious mind to no longer
retain the ability to resist the automatic impulses emanating from the unconscious to smoke. These
would be essentially irresistible urges that overwhelm any chance of conscious control.

However, alternative, more nuanced views are available. Tiffany, 1990, Tiffany, 1999 have argued that
cravings are neither necessary nor sufficient for addictive behaviors. Instead, he suggested that many
addictive patterns are automatic behavioral sequences that can be activated by environmental cues
based on conditional learning, even in the absence of conscious desire. For example, one may be used to
having a cigarette right after a run or dinner or sex, and in that situation one can light without being
asked for any subjective desire.

C. Keep the information and emphasize studies about the harm caused by exposure to tobacco leaves
and recommend a solution for the problem.

The extent of the disease and death burden that cigarette smoking imposes on public health is
extensive. Cigarette smoking is the main focus of this chapter because it is the central public health
issue, but the topics of exposure to second-hand smoke, smoking of other combustible tobacco
products, smokeless tobacco and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are also considered. The
extent of the threat to public health from cigarette smoking stems from two factors: (1) the incidence of
cigarette smoking is so high, and (2) smoking causes so many harmful health effects. A policy change
that reduces the incidence of cigarette smoking will result in a corresponding reduction in the
population burden of illness and death caused by cigarette smoking. The association between cigarette
smoking and the harmful health effects caused by smoking is dose dependent (HHS, 2014). Thus, a
public health benefit would be realized if a policy change led to reduced exposure to cigarette smoke
through means other than reducing the incidence of smoking. E.g. generated further reduction in the
population burden in case of smoking-caused illness and death if the policy also results in delayed
 Purposive Communication 2

initiation of cigarette smoking. The population's health benefit of delayed onset, although potentially
large, will be less than the benefit of a corresponding reduction in smoking prevalence, because delayed
onset is associated with reduced exposure to cigarette smoking rather than complete prevention of
exposure. A decrease in the incidence of cigarette smoking will have additional benefits downstream of
reducing the potential for non-smokers to be exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke.