Smoking survey

1. Introduction
Do you ever smoke? Do your friends smoke? Do any members of your family smoke? Should we be allowed to smoke in public places? Should we increase the price of cigarettes? Today doctors know that smoking is very bad for your health. And it causes some of the most dangerous diseases, such as lung cancer and heart disease. They still don't understand that almost everybody knows about what smoking does to their bodies and they still smoke. This is serious problem in society because they don't just affect themselves also; they affect the people who are around them.
Some of the researchers had found "staggering health risks of smoking; are women still lighting up? Today, 25.2 percent of women ages 18 to 24 and 27.8 percent of women ages 25 to 44 smoke--and these numbers are increasing. Dr. Larry Laufman, assistant professor at the Center for Cancer Control Research of Baylor College of Medicine, attributes the prevalence of young women who smoke to the recent rise in teen smokers". This increase in teen smoking is particularly worrisome because CDC studies have shown most people begin to smoke as teens. In fact, 82 percent of adults who smoke (or smoked in the past) had their first cigarette by the time they were 18, and more than half had become regular smokers by that time. Furthermore, people who have not tried cigarettes by the time they graduate from college are unlikely to ever start smoking". according to Stefanie, A. Doebler. A Smoking Gun. (1999, para.5).
2. Purpose
Our group, S. Aluqeel, G. Yoo, and I, decided to find out how smokers think about smoking. And what did they think the best solution to make people quit smoking is? I wanted to examine the relationship between gender and when people started smoking. Also, I wanted to know the difference between ages when they want to quit smoking. Moreover, I wanted to know the relationship between gender and their feeling about smoking’s legalization in public places.
3. Hypotheses
I had three hypotheses about smoking. First, I thought that males would say they started to smoke earlier than females. Second, I thought that females would be more likely to say that they started to smoke due to peer pressure than males. Third, I thought that increasing the price of cigarettes is the best solution to make males quit smoking, but it will not work with females.
4. Methods and procedures
Our group asked thirty people who are different gender and age in Carbondale to get different opinions. In addition, we decided to ask smokers because we wanted to know how smokers thought about smoking. We collected the surveys around the student center where the smokers like to spend time. We also decided to ask only smokers. We prepared a survey that has ten questions. Those questions are short questions, so it was easy for respondents to answer the questions.
5. Data + chart
6. Results
Actually, when we asked people, we found that males started to smoke cigarettes earlier than females. We found that 4 out of 15 (26%) of males started to smoke at age 11-15. And 14 out of 15 (93%) of females started to smoke at age 16-19 and 10 out of 15 (66%) of males started to smoke in age 16-19. And 1 out of 15 (6.7%) females started to smoke in age 20-24 and 1 out of 15 (6.7%) of males started at age 20-24. Also we found that more females started to smoke due to peer pressure than males. We found that 14 out of 15 (93%) of females and 10 out of 15 (66%) males started to smoke due to peer pressure. Moreover, we asked people to find out what they thought the best solution to make them quit smoking was and we found that 10 out of 15 (66%) of males and 8 out of 15 (53%) females think high price is the best solution. And the same result for males and females 3 out of 15 (20%), think that making smoking illegal in public places is the best solution. Moreover, 4 out of 15 (26%) of females and 2 out of 15 (13%) of males think that making smoking illegal until age 24 is a good solution.
7. Conclusions and Discussion
I believed that males would say they started to smoke before females. It was true because our survey showed that. And Stefanie A. Doebler mentioned it in her research. I think that happened because males wanted to prove that they are men, they are not children. Also, males thought that smoke, will make them cool and more attractive for females. Moreover, I believed that females be more likely to start smoking due to peer pressure than males. However, it was not true, because our survey showed that males were more likely to start smoking due to peer pressure than females. I was shocked at that fact, because I thought that females would start to smoke due to peer pressure more than males. I think that happened, because boys don’t like to say no to their friends if they asked them to try something, because they want to prove to their friends that they are men and they aren’t scared. Another thing I thought was that increasing the price of cigarette is the best solution to make males quit smoking, but it would not work with females. And our survey showed that is true. I think that happened, because males care about money more than females do, and because they are more responsible than females. I think if I do the survey again I will ask one more question. I want to know how smokers feel if the government of the U.S. makes it illegal to smoke and sell cigarettes?

8. Reference

Doebler, S.A. (1999, September). A Smoking Gun. American Fitness. FindArticles.com. Retrieved February 20, 2008, from
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0675/is_5_17/ai_57387244