Last week, CVS marked the first pharmaceutical company to ban the sale of cigarettes in its stores, proving that large companies can in fact be socially responsible.

Even though CVS is just one pharmaceutical company, this is a big step in making millennials the first generation to stop or exponentially decrease smoking.  This fight against cigarettes should continue in order to keep future generations from picking up the habit, given that tobacco-related health issues still affect one in five people every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cigarettes have come a long way since their creation in 1865. Spreading across all areas of the world, cigarettes were portrayed as a step towards becoming cool in countless advertisements.  But fortunately, it seems this long journey is coming to an abrupt end, with society rejecting and making it extremely difficult for the tobacco industry to expand.

What once was a social activity among our generation has gradually developed into the taboo that is the cancer stick.

In the U.S., smoking prevalence has decreased steadily. It was at 24 percent in 2005, decreasing to 19 percent in 2010 and 2011 and finally reaching a steady 18 percent in 2012, according to the CDC.

Smoking rates will continue to decrease if our society continues to socially discourage cigarette use and sales, while also making it as easy as possible to quit smoking and seek help.

Companies need to follow CVS’s socially responsible actions despite the drawbacks this may cause to their self-interest.  CVS expected to lose around two billion dollars as a result of the smoking ban, according to a Feb. 4 CNN article, when the company announced that it would ban tobacco products in the upcoming future.  Despite this revenue loss, other companies should follow CVS’s example and put their customers’ health needs above all else.

Organizations against the tobacco industry and the U.S. government have given people more reasons to stop smoking — not only by increasing the taxation of tobacco products, but by also providing professional help.

We already know that many college students deal with financial issues, whether by trying to balance their student loans, grocery lists or social outings.  So it’s completely logical that by taxing cigarettes, some students may limit their tobacco consumption, or stop entirely.

With this in mind, taxing cigarettes has already been an effective way to decrease smoking statistics.  A March 19 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities article announced that a 10 percent increase in a cigarette pack could cause a decrease of 5–15 percent for underage smokers and a 3–7 percent for adults.

However, although buying expensive packs of cigarettes can cause a dent in students’ wallets, a lot of smokers are addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes and can’t simply quit on demand.  This is where services to help quit smoking come into play.

And finally, cigarette warning labels have shown to greatly reduce the likelihood of smoking.  A Nov. 2013 study published in the Tobacco Control’s online journal revealed that applying graphic images on cigarette packages in Canada reduced smoking prevalence by almost 3–5 percent.

Even though many companies benefit from tobacco sales, the truth is, smoking is the No. 1 preventable death in the U.S., according to the CDC.  With this said, if companies have a chance to save almost 500,000 lives a year by halting their sale of cigarette and tobacco-related products, then by all means, they should follow CVS’s example and do so.

With help from socially responsible companies, we can try to eradicate smoking within our lifetime.

Tamara Rasamny is an international relations and newspaper & online journalism dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at twrasamn@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @Tam_Rasamny.

 

Published on September 10, 2014 at 12:33 am