‘Tis the Season to Talk About Smoking!

The cold crisp days of Fall have finally arrived. And while the colors of the season give pause, October and November are full of awareness days and occasions to honor special members of society. Many of these days are pertinent to people who smoke and are trying to quit.

October was Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Awareness Month. ADHD is a neurological disorder that impacts the parts of the brain that help people plan, focus on, and execute tasks. ADHD symptoms can interfere with many aspects of the life of a person living with ADHD, including home, academic, social, and work. In recent years, there has been an increase in ADHD diagnoses in both children and adults.

More than two-thirds of people with ADHD have multiple challenges. Common comorbidities range from autism and anxiety, to learning disabilities and substance abuse. Nearly 40 percent of people living with ADHD smoke. These adults start smoking at an earlier age, smoke more heavily, experience difficulty in quitting smoking, and often struggle to maintain abstinence from smoking. Nearly twice as many children with ADHD initiate smoking compared to children without ADHD.

Several medications that are prescribed to reduce the symptoms of ADHD are stimulants. Because nicotine is a stimulant, people with ADHD who smoke might be self-medicating to alleviate their ADHD symptoms. Some people find that nicotine helps with cognition, attention, mood, and memory.

Right after ADHD Awareness Month is World Lung Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated in November. Cigarette smoking causes 80 to 90 percent of the lung cancer deaths in the United States. Smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer, and lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths. While the American Lung Association heavily promotes Lung Cancer Awareness Month, they encourage people who cannot quit smoking to avoid using reduced-risk nicotine products. They are so adamant about this they even choose to spread false information by claiming vaping causes popcorn lung.

Veteran’s Day is on November 11th. Veterans smoke at a higher rate (21.6 percent) than civilians. The Defense Department spent nearly $1.8 billion in medical and non-medical costs related to tobacco use in 2014. While the Department of Veterans Affairs offers many options to help veterans quit smoking, they do not recommend reduced-risk products such as vaping, snus, and nicotine pouches.

Depending on when and where they served, 11 to 30 percent of veterans will deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in their lifetime. Heavy smoking status was positively related to total PTSD symptoms among combat veterans. People living with PTSD have a greater prevalence of smoking and struggle more to quit than the general population. Further, there are studies indicating that people with PTSD may be using nicotine to help alleviate some of their symptoms.

On November 17th, the United States will hold its annual Great American Smoke-Out (GASO). The day focuses on the 34 million Americans who still smoke and the 480,000 who die annually from smoking-related causes. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, accounting for 29 percent of all cancer deaths.

While many consumers struggle to quit smoking during the GASO, organizations holding events on that day will spread messaging that lumps vaping and smoking together instead of encouraging the use of vaping products to quit smoking. By contrast, the UK’s annual stop-smoking drive, Stoptober, actively encourages the use of vaping products as a recognized way of quitting combustible tobacco use.

Fall is here, a season enjoyed by many, and a season with many days to celebrate the days recognizing those among us who struggle with cigarette addiction wrought on by difficult circumstances. The enjoyment of the season can be enhanced and recognizing these days by helping people quit smoking, improve their ability to breathe, and get them outside enjoying the plethora of beautiful fall colors nature provides us. This means we need to stop making it easier for adults to smoke than switch to a safer alternative and ignore the misinformation pushed by the same organizations who claim that they want to help adults quit smoking.

Kim Murray is a Research Fellow for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance’s Consumer Center.