Cigarettes Not a Frum Habit

This article is published as a service by the Youth Action Movement (YAM) in Crown Heights in cooporation with COLlive’s Bettering a Community project. YAM provides support, guidance, and enrichment to Crown Heights youth and young adults. Reach them at [email protected] or call 1-718-771-9000 (ext 7749).

Smoking is a habit that cuts across all spectrums of the frum community. Cigarettes have the best hechsher out there that everyone accepts. Smokers puff away at a farbrengen while discussing the intricacies of the Creator and what He wants from us. Outside of shuls after davening, congregants gather to smoke and chat.

Motzoei Shabbos, a pack of cigarettes is shared amongst desperate smokers “dying” to have their first cigarette in 25 hours. The message to teens and young adults is very clear: smoking cigarettes and being a frum jew fit very well together.

On the younger side of the spectrum, an unsuspecting 12 year-old takes his first puff in an alley to see what it is like. Younger girls start smoking to look older and cooler when hanging out in places they shouldn’t. Groups of secret teen smokers find a little crevice to smoke, away from disapproving eyes.

The purpose of this article is to encourage young people – and adults – to think a little more about cigarette use and what it does to the body. We also hope to look at some sad facts about the frum community and smoking. If you are offended by this, just stop here, but if you want to know the facts, read on.

“It helps me relax in social settings.”

“It calms me down.”

“I fit in better with the cool kids.”

“It helps me control my appetite.”

“It helps me think deeply about Torah.”

These are just some of the countless excuses that young people use to justify. Most don’t ponder the negative effects it has on them, nor what it is that they are really inhaling.

Health Hazard—Cigarettes Kill

What are some of the wonderful additives in cigarettes? Here are a few of the 4000-plus chemicals found in them, as well as some other places they are most commonly used:

Carbon Monoxide—Car Exhaust
Nicotine—Pesticide
Ammonia—Floor Cleaner
Arsenic—Ant Poison
Hydrogen Cyanide—Poison
Methanol—Rocket Fuel
Formaldehyde—Preservative for Dead Bodies
Nitric Acid—Fertilizers, Explosives, and Dyes
Naphthalene—Moth Balls.
Tar—Material for Paving Roads

Get the picture!? Who in their right mind would willingly smoke after pondering what is in cigarettes? That is why tobacco companies are not divulging what cigarettes really are, and efforts by others to force them to inform the public have run into billion-dollar walls of legal battles. The result is increased danger to smokers. By the way, those same companies are spending huge sums of money in advertising to ensnare teenagers whom they know are very easy targets.

Insidious for Teenagers

In all walks of life, smoking is something that teens start for many reasons, almost none of them related to the physical desire to have a cigarette. Having a desire to smoke is about as natural as putting your mouth over a car’s exhaust pipe. Who would subject himself to this? Teen curiosity, defiance, sense of adventure, wanting to be “cool” and fit in, creating an image, stress relief, and following in the footsteps of friends and family who smoke are some of the reasons why young people first start to smoke.

By nature, a teenager is striving to define himself and where he fits in this world. All teens experiment with different forms of self-expression, but cigarettes are often a little more than they bargained for. The process of nicotine reaching your brain from the bloodstream after being inhaled into the lungs takes 7 seconds, faster than shooting heroin directly into one’s arm R’L. It could take as little as 4 weeks and less than 100 cigarettes to become addicted to nicotine.

The rate of cigarette users who become addicted to nicotine is higher than alcohol, and even higher than crack cocaine! Around 2/3 of teens smokers report that they want to quit smoking and even more say that they would not start smoking if they could choose again.

The lack of urgency to quit is a big problem for teens as they usually are more interested in short-term satisfaction as opposed to longer-term vision and goals.

Quitting smoking is not the easiest habit to break; it may actually be the hardest. Since teens do not like to fail, they can be easily discouraged from stopping in the face of such a difficulty.

The effects of smoking are less pronounced when you are young, even though they are still very present. The saying goes, “When you are young, you think you are invincible.” Teenagers and young adults have incredible physical resiliency. They can recover from fatigue, injury, and heavy activity much faster than adults. Despite this, most teens have already experienced some of the ill effects of smoking:
Shortness of breath
Increased illness, including bronchitis
Susceptibility to colds
Excessive coughing
Yellow teeth

Worse, smoking can affect a youth’s lung growth and ability to function properly. Studies show that teens that smoke are more likely to use alcohol and other drugs, have high stress levels, and engage in different forms of rebellious behavior, ranging from violence to truancy and much more. If teens continue to smoke as they move into adulthood, they have a much greater risk for developing heart and lung diseases as well as various cancers, including lung and bladder cancer. 1 in 3 teens who continue to smoke into adulthood will eventually die of smoking related causes.

Cigarettes in the frum community

What a sad commentary on frum communities that there are known individuals and places where young people can purchase cigarettes both for good prices and without hassle. There is very little distinction made by these frum black-marketers about their clientele, as long as they pay in cash. These places aren’t seedy, underground establishments; rather, they may be your local shul or yeshiva. The salesman may be considered as part of that establishment.

Another favorite spot for young people are bodegas where loose cigarettes are sold at late hours accommodating the night owls that can’t find a pack at those times.

Rarely are these individuals or establishments held accountable for their actions. We are either indifferent or don’t think we can change the situation. The result is that for a young person in the frum community, it is way too easy to get a hold of a cigarette.

The Elephant in the Room

Cigarette addiction avoids deep scrutiny sometimes because it does not destroy families or individuals. It doesn’t cause people to do crimes or act irrationally in the way that alcohol or other drugs do. It isn’t even viewed as a drug.

But today, medical facts scream out that tobacco-related disease is the number one cause of preventable disease and death in the US and worldwide. Every 48 hours, 2,400 Americans die from smoke-related products – that’s like a 9/11 attack every 2 days, 183 times per year – and that’s only in America.

There is the sad story of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous who died in his fifties of lung cancer. While he was busy staying away from alcohol, he was smoking several packs a day. Simply put, nicotine addiction is a very real and tragic public health crisis.

As a community, we need to take a longer and closer look at cigarette use among young people as well as adults. Our complacency is a big part of the issue. Below are some suggestions how to tackle this issue.

Summary

Cigarettes are extremely detrimental to one’s short-term and long-term health.

Cigarettes are full of poisons and toxins, and cigarette companies spend billions of dollars every year to downplay this fact.

Nicotine is highly addictive, and the addiction is extremely hard to break.

Teenagers in the frum community are generally unaware of the above facts, and there is a lack of will and effort to educate them about cigarette use.

Teenagers do not see the urgency to stop smoking because the damage caused is not immediately seen.

It is too easy for teenagers to get cigarettes in the frum community.

Take Action

Accessibility—as a community, make efforts to control how much access young people have to cigarettes.

Role Models—stop the complacency! Our actions should not give smoking a stamp of approval for young people.

Dialogue with Teens—Conduct open and honest dialogue with young people about cigarette smoking and the dangers it poses.

Encouraging Efforts to Quit—Create a support system through which young people can be assisted when trying to quit smoking.

Get Healthy – Find a healthy alternative form of expression.

Most of the statistical information in this post is taken from the American Lung Association Website. We encourage readers to do some research of their own as there is a wealth of information out there on this subject.