The Use of Social Marketing Messages in an Anti-Tabacco Context: An Investigation of Irish Female Adolescents

Estimates from the Irish National Cancer Registry show that lung cancer is increasing by 3% a year in women. From being a predominantly male disease for the past fifty years, lung cancer will be predominantly a female disease by 2020. The United States' FDA classifies smoking as a "pediatric disease". Nearly nine out of ten smokers begin smoking in their teenage years. Smoking initiation at an early age has a greater cancer risk, independent of smoking intensity and years of smoking. Cigarette smoking by adolescents is a major public health concern, since it exacerbates respiratory conditions, diminishes the growth of lung volume when the exposure occurs before the age of maximum lung growth and is an independent risk factor for lung cancer. This paper analyses the role of social marketing in preventing young females taking up smoking.