A recent study shows that children who have parents that smoke are likely to be undernourished and underfed. Food insecurity is a phenomenon that analyzes one’s family access to food. Most food insecure families are in this situation because of poverty, not affording to buy the basic ingredients for a healthy diet. Currently, 852 million people around the globe suffer from chronic hunger, but the recent study focuses more on “food insecurity” in developed countries, like the US. The long-term effects of undernourishment are weak results in school, anemia and even behavioral or social problems.
The study was conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which surveyed 8,817 families and discovered that 15% of adults and 11% of children reported to be “food insecure” in the past year. This means that a growing number of people are going to bed at night feeling hungry, or nutritiously unsatisfied. The study shows that in families with at least one smoker, children were “food insecure” in a proportion of 17%. In houses with no smokers, “food insecure” children were only in a proportion of 8.7%. Scientists believe that the situation is going to get worse, due to the collapsing economy. Experts have also declared that raising taxes on cigarettes cannot be a reliable solution, as higher costs for tobacco products might get people to allocate even lower funds for food.
According to scientists, smoking is one of the hardest addictions to give up and because of this pricier cigarettes might lead to even more people feeling “food insecure.” A reliable solution might be a more aggressive campaign promoting the dangers of smoking and the hardships of quitting this vice.