In a Puff of Smoke:
Tobacco Trails
Smoking and Geography
You will need to make copies of these maps. Make sufficient copies of the maps for each student, or have the students work in teams if only limited copies of the maps are available. Also, provide a large wall map of the world.
In this activity students learn some world geography. Note that the per capita consumption data is for 1992. More recent data, as well as data for Africa, India, the former USSR, and South America, are not readily available.
| Country | Population |
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| Poland | 39,000,000 |
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| Greece | 10,500,000 |
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| Hungary | 10,220,000 |
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| Japan | 124,600,000 |
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| South Korea | 45,800,000 |
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| Switzerland | 6,990,000 |
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| Iceland | 268,000 |
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| Netherlands | 15,450,000 |
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| Australia | 19,100,000 |
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| Spain | 38,700,000 |
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| United States | 262,700,000 |
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| Canada | 28,900,000 |
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| New Zealand | 3,500,000 |
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| Ireland | 3,500,000 |
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| Germany | 82,240,000 |
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| Belgium | 10,100,000 |
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| Israel | 5,843,000 |
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| Cuba | 11,000,000 |
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| China | 1,215,300,000 |
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Answers to Questions
- For which regions of the world are there no data? Why?
-
Answer: Reasons vary. There is no reliable means of collecting data
in developing countries. For the former Soviet Union, data were withheld.
- Which countries or regions of the world represent good markets for cigarettes?
-
Answer:In answering which country, emphasize the fact that the
table of data gives cigarette consumption per capita. To use that data for total consumption,
population data are needed. The table on the Teacher's Guide gives the population for each
country.
- What would you expect to be true about the lung cancer rates in the countries you gave as
your answer to Question 2?
-
Answer:You would expect cancer incidence to increase in countries
in which smoking is prevalent in the population. However, rates of increase depend on efforts
being made locally to reduce smoking and the rates of increase among young potential smokers.
For a general discussion of this topic, see copies of the
World Health Organization
Report for 1995-2000.
For more information, at other Web sites...
-
The Health
Consequences of Smoking — from the World Bank.
Relevant National Science Education Standards
-
Science in Personal and Social
Perspectives — The activity involves a worldwide health risk, cancer.
Relevant New Jersey State Science Education Standards
Teacher's Guide Directory |
Student Version Directory |
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5.3
This activity employs quantitative data about smoking and requires simple math to interpret the
data
Bibliography
Respiration —
part of the website Pulmonology from Universiteit Maastricht.
Copyright ©2001
The Chemical Heritage Foundation