Newsletter: February 2007
Kathleen Ragsdale and Janelle S. Taylor, Contributing Editors
Anthropological Research on National and Global Tobacco Use: Contributions from the University of Arizona
By Mimi Nichter and Mark Nichter (University of Arizona)
Tobacco use kills more people worldwide than malaria, maternal and major childhood conditions, and tuberculosis combined. By 2020, tobacco use will contribute to 8.4 million deaths annually, making it the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the world. Developing regions will be particularly impacted: in Asia alone, deaths due to tobacco use are projected to rise above 4 million, nearly twice that of developed regions.
Faculty and students at the University of Arizona (UA) Department of Anthropology have pioneered the use of ethnographic methods in tobacco research in the areas of dependency and addiction among adolescents and young adults; advertising and marketing; health disparities; polydrug use; gender and tobacco; the political economy of the tobacco industry; and the ecological impact of tobacco production. UA tobacco researchers are also actively engaged in national and international public health policy debates and recommendations. In 1994, Mark Nichter served as a member of the Institute of Medicine task force to examine tobacco use among U.S. youth. This group produced the highly influential Congressional report, Growing Up Tobacco Free: Preventing Nicotine Addiction in Children and Youth. In 2000, Mimi Nichter presented a commissioned paper to the World Health Organization (WHO) at their inaugural event for the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, which was the first global WHO treaty. Using Asia as a case study, Mimi’s paper focused on aggressive marketing campaigns which target women in developing countries where smoking is presently culturally inappropriate.
During 1989-1995 and 1998-2000, Mark, Mimi, and Cheryl Ritenbaugh (assisted by Nancy Vuckovic, Marybeth McPhee, Liz Cartwright, and Brooke Olsen) conducted a NIH-funded longitudinal study on body image, dieting, and smoking among adolescent girls. From 1998-2005, Mark was a core member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Tobacco Etiology Research Network (TERN), which examined nicotine dependency among youth. In 2000, Mimi was selected by TERN to become a Faculty Scholar (2000-2005). During this period, the Nichters studied the development of tobacco addiction among adolescents in the U.S. Their 2001 research on smoking among UA freshman helped frame the University Project of the TERN group (UpTERN), conducted at Purdue University in 2002-2003. UpTERN is one of the largest and most rigorous studies of tobacco use among U.S. college freshmen to date, which explored smoking trajectories among 900 freshmen over a one-year period. UA graduate student Nicole Taylor assisted in the training of researchers in ethnographic methods at the Purdue University study site.
During 2002-2004, Dr. Myra Muramoto (UA Department of Family and Community Medicine) and the Anthropology Department (assisted by graduate students Shelly Adrian, Kate Goldade, Laura Tesler, and Jennifer Thompson) collaborated on a study of low income mothers who smoked during pregnancy and postpartum. Laura is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the UCSF. Presently, the Nichters and Muramoto (assisted by graduate students Heide Castenada, Lauren Carruth, and Steve Wind) are conducting the ethnographic component of Project Reach, a National Cancer Institute-funded project which is developing community-based models for tobacco cessation in the U.S. The Nichters (assisted by graduate student, David Van Sickle), conducted a multi-site, multi-method study of tobacco use trends among college students in Karnataka State, India (1999).
At present, the Nichters and Muramoto are working on a Fogarty NIH-funded, project known as Project Quit Tobacco International (QTI) in India and Indonesia. QTI is one the first projects to develop culturally appropriate tobacco cessation education and outreach programs in the developing world. In 2006, results from QTI were presented at a special SFAA session and at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH).
Anthropological research on individual and societal impacts of tobacco production and dependence (e.g., pesticide use, state tax revenues), trajectories of use, cessation, and marketing is urgently needed. The Alcohol, Drug, and Tobacco Study Group (an SMA special interest group currently headed by Mimi) provides resources to anthropologists interested in tobacco research, including the constructive critique of existing tobacco control programs, policies, and rhetoric.
To learn more about the SMA Policy Committee and Public Policy Statement, “Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Study Group Takes a Stand: The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: An Urgent Call for U.S. Ratification,” go to http://www.medanthro.net/stand/tobacco/revised.html.
Please send column contributions to Contributing Editor Kathleen Ragsdale (ragsdale@ndri.org)