CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Smoking causes changes in the body and in the way one acts.

These changes in the body are caused by addiction to nicotine.

The changes in the way one acts develop overtime as one buys

cigarettes, lights them and smoke them. These changes have become

one's smoking habits.

(http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/addictions/t

obac co/161.html).

Tobacco has been used by people for centuries, but cigarette

smoking and large scale cigarette manufacturing appeared only in

the 19th century. Cigarette smoking has since spread worldwide

and in 2000 about one in three adults, or about 1.1 to 1.2

billion people worldwide, smoked. It is estimated that smoking is

responsible for four million deaths in the world each year (WHO,

1999a). The number of smokers is expected to increase to 1.6

billion people by 2025 as a result of growth in adult population

and increased tobacco consumption (World Bank, 1999). Tobacco and

tobacco products, however, are produced, traded and consumed

legally, as all other products, and their production and trade is

subject to the same rules and regulations as all other products.

Thus, although many countries take active measures to reduce

smoking and other tobacco use as a policy for reducing tobacco-

related social costs, economies of other countries have to depend

heavily on tobacco growing and tobacco-related manufacturing for

employment and income.

The World Health Organization came up with the latest

survey/study about tobacco consumption detailing the increasing

use of cigarettes among the people of the SouthEast Asian Region.

The findings show that the Philippines ranks second to Thailand

in tobacco consumption (Ariza, R.,2007). The majority of Filipino

adult smokers are men and they early teens.

Currently, there are more than 70 countries in the world

which have official anti-smoking programs and activities,