Harmful Effects Of Smoking

The deaths of over 420,000 of Americans this year will be do to cigarettes. With all the other causes of deaths, alcohol, illegal drugs, AIDS, suicide, transportation accidents, fires, and guns, cigarettes still count for more deaths than those do combined. We can’t stand and watch people die because they smoke cigarettes. Thousands of smokers try to rid themselves of cigarettes but can't because of additive nicotine. Nicotine was recently declared addictive by the Food and Drug Administration, which explains why many smokers continue to smoke despite the health warnings on cigarette smoking.

Teen smokers quickly become addicted to nicotine and when trying to fight the addiction, experience high relapse and withdrawal symptoms. Of the 46 million smokers in the United States, 34 percent try to quit each year, but less than 10 percent succeed. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It accounts for almost 500,000 deaths per year, or one in every five deaths. Smoking also contributes to a breathtaking amount of diseases which includes coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular disease, peptic ulcer disease, and many types of cancer.

With so many regulations, the numbers of smokers and packs sold must go down and hopefully so will the number of tobacco related deaths. Many states want to raise the smoking age to 21 to help lower the number of smokers in America. The age needs to be raised in order to help keep young adults away from cigarettes. Smokers become regular smokers aroung the age of 20 so this law will keep many from addiction. Raising the age will also keep many under-age smokers away from tobacco.

Making that statement, what good deed could smoking do in our society today? Studies have shown that people who smoke are at greater risk of developing myocardial infection, recurring heart attacks, and sudden death from heart diseases than people who don't smoke. Smokers also put themselves in a very good position to have a stroke. Chances can be some what detected by the number of cigarettes smoked per day, but it is more likely in younger smokers because their hearts and other body organs are not fully developed yet (Bender 19-20). All cases of lung cancer reported are almost always linked to people who smoke.

Many adults and teens might not care about how smoking tobacco is harmful for their body and health. Even in certain areas legislation has ban smoking in public places, and the dangers of smoking have been given to the public. The dangers of smoking can cause many risks such as disease, cancer, and dying. First, cigarettes smoking harms organs in the body which causes diseases. The names of some great risk diseases are cardiovascular disease (affects the heart and blood) and respiratory disease (damaging the airways).

Smoking and the Effects of It Smoking is known as one of the worst habits to break. Most people who start never quit just because it is just too hard to quit or they are just so addicted to the chemicals that the tobacco companies use in their cigarettes and don't see the real problems that smoking can cause. If smoking did the same thing as it did on the outside as it does on the inside, how many people do you think will smoke then? Everyday, about 3,000 teenagers smoke their first cigarette. About half of those teenagers become addicted and then regular smokers before the age of eighteen.

Smoking is one of the leading killers in North America and innocent people shouldn't die because of it. For years people have been smoking in public thinking 'it's my body, I can do whatever I want to it,' but now that it has been proven that smoking not only harms the smoker, but also those around him or her, they should not be allowed to smoke around other people in public. Smoking in public places causes a considerable amount of harm to people and the government should be doing more to protect citizens Cigarettes are full of many harmful substances and if many people knew what they were inhaling they would probably quit immediately. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of chemicals, over sixty of which can cause cancer ( http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/smokingthefacts/hp099201.html). Many of the ingredients in cigarettes are not substances that humans usually consume, but smokers (and the non-smokers around them) do.

In the world that surrounds the human race every day, debates about cigarettes are ongoing. Many think that cigarettes should be banned and made illegal just as heroin was. On the contrary, giving up old habits such as smoking can be hard to accomplish and is fought otherwise. The truth is that with every drug there’s a cost that must be paid, although cigarettes are more settled, the life threatening effects cause cancer, heart disease and death. There are state drug laws that make it illegal to process, cultivate and manufacture dangerous paraphernalia.

By banning cigarettes, the government is not taking away smoker’s free will but they are making necessary action to their population. Most of the smokers will quit if they could and most of the smokers start at a young age without knowing the effects of smoking. Banning cigarettes reduce the death rate of lung cancer and heart disease since they are mostly caused by smoking. The government will save over 100 billion in the next 10 years that used from the smokers medical bills. This money can be put to education, transportation and other expenses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also stated that approximately another 8.6 million people have serious illnesses caused by cigarette smoking. Cigarettes contain arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and 43 known carcinogens (Brandt). Urea, a component found in urine, is also added to cigarettes to add flavor. Each year more Americans die from cigarette smoking than homicide, AIDS, drugs abuse and car accidents combined (Health Effects). Despite this tragic fact, cigarettes are the most widely advertised item in America.