Cigarettes Should be Illegal

796 Words2 Pages

One of the largest and most problematic health issues in our society is smoking. Smoking is currently the leading cause of death in our country, due to its harmful and addicting contents, such as nicotine and tobacco. Although millions die from it each year, smoking is the single most preventable cause of death as well. Without smoking, a tremendous amount of money and lives will be saved. I think that our country should ban smoking and the production of cigarettes in order to maintain a healthier nation, help save the environment, and prevent the almost 1000 deaths that they cause in fires each year.

My first topic is the health risks and problems that smoking tobacco causes. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. Smoking costs the United States over $150 billion annually in health care costs. They cause an estimated 443,000 deaths each year. They cause many different cancers like chronic lung disease, emphysema, bronchitis, and heart disease. Smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, and even leukemia has been found linked to smoking. Also, people who smoke are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Smoking also causes most cases of chronic obstructive lung disease. Also, approximately 49,400 deaths have been due to exposure to secondhand smoke. 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of diseases caused by exposure to second hand smoke every year.

My second topic is the impact that smoking has on the environment. Nearly 600 million trees of forest are destroyed each year to provi...

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...more than twice as likely as youth without smoking parents to become smokers. More than 90 percent of adult smokers started when they were teens. A 2001 Survey found that 69.4 percent of teenage smokers reported never being asked for proof of age when buying cigarettes in a store. The same survey found that 62.4 percent were allowed to buy cigarettes even when the retailer was aware they were under eighteen.

Cigarette smoking is very harmful for both smoker, non- smokers and the environment. People who smoke in just show how inconsiderate they are towards others. Even the people who do not smoke in public places are selfish. They do not consider the affect smoking might have on them and how that will affect their family and the environment. Cigarettes cause hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths each year and that is why cigarettes need to be made illegal.

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