Way back in Jan 2009 I posted the following. It might be due repost, because I think it is a really interesting point that leads to a much wider debate.
One thing that is not often discussed re nicotine addiction is the VERY strong genetic correlation. Smoking runs in families not because parents smoke but because they are the parents. Twins separated at birth and raised in smoking and non-smoking households respectively end up equally addicted to nicotine only as a result of their birth parents, not their environment. IMHO, if you are addicted to nicotine it is (almost) pointless trying to stop your kids from becoming addicted; what we can do though is guide their addiction to less harmful nicotine delivery methods.
There is a great section in “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell on nicotine and how addictive it is (or not). It is based on a study done by researchers at Michigan University. As they say, “in the heated rhetoric of the war on smoking” a critical point is often lost. “…how ‘sticky’ smoking ends up being to any single person, depends a great deal on his or her own particular reaction to nicotine…of all teenagers who experiment with cigarettes, only about a third go on to smoke regularly. Nicotine may be highly addictive, but it is only addictive in some people, some of the time…smoking experts used to think that 90-95% of all those who smoked were regular smokers. But several years ago, the smoking questions on the federal government’s national health survey were made more specific, and researchers discovered to their astonishment, that a fifth of all smokers don’t smoke every day. There are millions of Americans, in other words, who manage to smoke regularly and not be hooked - people for whom smoking is contagious but not sticky”
There’s a lot more, but you get the idea.
see also this:
Saul Shiffman1
(1) Clinical Psychology, 706 OEH, University of Pittsburgh, 15260 Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Received: 24 May 1988 Accepted: 5 October 1988
Abstract This study explores the behavior of tobacco chippers — very light smokers who regularly use tobacco without developing dependence. Eighteen chippers (CHs) who averaged a maximum of five cigarettes per day, but who smoked at least 4 days per week, were compared to 29 dependent smokers (DSs). Laboratory data showed that CHs inhale cigarette smoke and are exposed to nicotine. In both experimental and retrospective self-report data, CHs showed no signs of tobacco withdrawal when abstinent. CHs also differed from DSs in their pattern of smoking: their smoking was less linked with mood states. However, the hypothesis that they were social smokers was contradicted. CHs also differed on psychosocial variables relevant to a stress-coping model of smoking: they reported less stress, better coping, and more social support, but these differences were small. Although the two groups were demographically similar, smoking behavior differences between CHs and DSs were long-standing: the two groups differed in their responses to initial smoking and in their family histories of smoking and cessation. CHs’ smoking behavior challenges classical theories of dependence; further research is needed on the factors that may protect CHs from addiction.