Prevention and Cessation of Tobacco and Other Nicotine Products
ANA Position Statement
Effective Date: March 2020
Statement of ANA Position
The American Nurses Association (ANA) recognizes that smoke and smokeless tobacco product use directly contributes to the leading causes of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. (US DHHS, 2014) Furthermore, ANA recognizes that nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco, is an extremely addictive substance that is at the center of behavioral-cognitive conditioning and habitual use of tobacco products that carry high potential for adverse health effects such as a myriad of cancers and disorders of the cardiovascular, respiratory, reproductive, urinary, and gastrointestinal systems. (Mishra et al., 2015; Vogel, 2016) Research shows that 90 percent of those addicted to tobacco products started using before they were 18 years of age, because the adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to addiction. (US DHHS, 2019b)