Smoking Survey

I.- Introduction

Smoking is a serious problem that has affected us from many years ago. No one has proved that yet; there are physical reasons to start smoking. The body doesn't need tobacco the way it needs food, water, sleep, and exercise. Almost everyone knows that smoking causes cancer, emphysema, and heart disease; “Despite these deadly effects, about 35% of the adult men and 25% of adult women in the United States smoke cigarettes, averaging one and a half packs a day for a national grand total of some 600 billion packs a year”(Seal, 1998); that it can shorten our life by 10 years or more; and that the habit can cost a smoker thousands of dollars a year.

II.- Purpose

We wanted to do a survey, because we wanted to find out how many smokers are in SIUC, and how many of them are women and men. Also we were interested in knowing what the reasons are that people smoke, and if they have a particular preference for doing it, alone or around people.

III.- Hypotheses

I believe that from this survey, it is going to prove that more males smoke than females. Also that the most common reason to start to smoke is for stress. In addition, the majority is not going to admit that they are addicted. And it’s going to be more common to smoke around people than alone.

IV.- Materials

We used a questionnaire with 8 questions in total; for some to respond was yes or no; for others it was multiple answer, and in the rest they had to given their opinions. Some of the questions are, do you smoke; do you smoke mostly alone or with people; do you smoke in private or in public; are you addicted; and what’s the best way to quit.

V.- Methods

An 8-item survey was administered in SIUC in many different places like the hallway of the Faner building; to students of the summer CESL program; also outside of the library, and in the Student Center. We asked males and females of different ages; most of them with different backgrounds, and cultures, and from different countries.

VI.- Data: SEE APPENDICES A.

Appendix A

VII.- Results

According to this survey it is very clear that males smoke more than females; there exist a very high difference in the result. The survey shows that 78.9% of the smokers are males and only 21.1% are females. Also we can see a distend preference that most of the people smoke in both ways, like with company or alone, with 75%. However just a few of them prefer to smoke in private; this option reaches 25%; but 66.7% of the people who took the survey don’t pay attention to that, and smoke with people too. Just 37.5% recognized that they are addicted, but 62.5% don’t. 42.9% of the people started to smoke because they felt a lot of stress in their life. And the majority believe that people start to smoke because they are influenced by their friends. And 39.5% also think that the best way to quit smoking is a program of training

VIII.- Conclusion

I had proved with facts many of my points from this survey; for example that more males smoke than females. Also I confirm that the most common reason to start to smoke is for stress; I think that is the major reason, because many people had told me that they feel relaxed when they smoke. In addition, I corroborate that the majority doesn’t admit that they are addicted; maybe it’s because they felt shame and they don’t want to admit that they had a problem.

IX.- Reference

Seal, B. (1998). Smoking. In Academic Encounter: Human Behavior. Pp. 31-33. New York: Cambridge University Press.