The graphical model below illustrates how tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure lead to death, disability and disease, and how key prevention and control strategies are known to intervene in that process.
The initiation of smoking among members of the population leads to tobacco dependence and eventually to death, disability, and disease. Furthermore, when the population is exposed to secondhand smoke, it can lead to death, disability, and disease. Secondhand smoke can also encourage both initiation of smoking and tobacco dependence, which in turn leads to death, disability, and disease. Additionally, initiation of tobacco use and tobacco dependence can also contribute towards increasing exposure to secondhand smoke.
The NC Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch employs three broad categories of strategies to address tobacco prevention and control in the population. First, we employ a variety of strategies to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke, which in turn will reduce initiation, tobacco dependence, and death, disability and disease. Second, we employ a variety of strategies to prevent young people from using tobacco, which will work towards preventing young people from initiating tobacco use (and later becoming dependent on tobacco and suffering from death, disability, and disease). And third, we employ a variety of strategies to increase tobacco use cessation to help those who are dependent on tobacco quit and reduce their chances of falling victim to tobacco-related death, disability, and disease.
Updated: February 26, 2020
