Smoking and Tobacco Products

1205 Words3 Pages

Have you ever met someone who has spent money to slowly kill themselves? We all have if you know someone who smokes or uses tobacco products. According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 19 percent of adults and 16 percent of high school students smoked cigarettes in 2011 (Smoking, 2). Smokers spend thousands of dollars every year on this habit, while detracting from their own health. Smoking legislation has segregated these individuals to better assist with the health effects but there are still places in the United States that allow smoking indoors in public establishments. We all know that smoking or using smokeless tobacco is bad for your health, yet people across the world continue to do this unhealthy and expensive habit. I understand that it is a person’s right to smoke or use smokeless tobacco, but no one really has the right to say anything unless it directly effects them. Smoking can effect individuals in different ways. The objective is to better educate people on the ramifications of smoking by discussing the health issues related to this subject and how it effects a smoker financially. I would like to begin with how much smoking actually costs a person and the effect smoking has in society.
According to Zachery Lim, if an individual smokes one pack a day at 4 dollars per pack they would spend 112 dollars per month, 1,344 dollars per year, and over 200,000 dollars in eighteen years (Lim, 1). As you can see that can add up to be a lot of money. Those dollars could be used for several different things from vacations to places like Disneyland or a trip to the Bahamas. It could also be used towards savings for retirement; so you will not have to work during your golden years or work as hard. There are other int...

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...rate from no smokers that will keep the innocent from suffering. Smoking while pregnant is another way of effecting an innocent baby. Even the choice is an individual one, smoking can hurt you and possibly everyone around you.

Works Cited

Enderson, Danille. "Facts on the Cost of Smoking." LIVESTRONG.COM.
LIVESTRONG.COM, 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
"Effects of Smoking While Pregnant: Dangers to Your Baby." WebMD. WebMD, n.d.
Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Lim, Zackery. "Average Financial Costs of Smoking." Ezinearticles.com. N.p., n.d.
Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
"Smoking." - National Cancer Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
Werner, Erica. "How Much Does Smoking Cost Society?" The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 07 Apr. 2009. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
Woolston, Chris. "How Smoking during Pregnancy Affects You and Your Baby."
BabyCenter. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

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