Smoking Life Away: The Harmful Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

1414 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Causes and effects of smoking cigarettes

Smoking Life Away

Smoke travels far. After the smoke is released, it diffuses and travels in the atmosphere reaching just about anything at a reasonable distance. When one smoker puffs out, it affects that person, somebody across from that person, and the clean air around that person. Ever wonder why warnings and disclaimers are always present with anything that concerns smoking? This is because it is dangerous, and it is harmful , and it should warn you about the lasting impact it leaves you. Cigarette smoking is more or less socially accepted by most people. There is a certain awareness about the consequences, but do people actually digest what these warnings really mean? If smoking does more harm than good, should it be smarter to just do away with it? Cigarette smoking should be banned due to the numerous harmful effects to the smokers, the families and friends, and to the environment.

Let’s start with the harmful effects of cigarette smoking to the smoker. This vice causes long lasting effects to the smokers, both physically and psychologically. The prolonged use of cigarettes leads to various disabilities and diseases (CDC, 2013). As of last year, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) found out that more than 16 million Americans suffer from smoking-related diseases (CDC, 2013). Cigarette use changes smokers physically, from skin, to teeth, to hair, even in ways that certainly add years to looks (Chang, 2011).

According to WebMD, there are more than 40,000 chemicals that make up one cigarette and many of these substances trigger the destruction of healthy cells in the body (webmd, 2011). It is a well known fact that toxic substances that make up a cigarette cause respiratory diseases, cardiac ailments, and cancer. ...

... middle of paper ...

...
Center for Disease Control. (2013). Smoking and tobacco use. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/Tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm

Chang, L. (2011, September). Surprising ways smoking affects your looks and life. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/ss/slideshow-ways-smoking-affects-looks

Debate.org (2013). Should cigarette smoking be banned?. Retrieved from http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-cigarette-smoking-be-banned

Martin, T. (2014). What are the health effects of cigarette smoking?. Retrieved from http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tobaccostatistics/a/CigaretteSmoke.htm

Proctor, R. (2013). Why ban the sales of cigarettes? The case for abolition. Retrieved from http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/22/suppl_1/i27.full

World Health Organization (2013). Tobacco. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/topics/tobacco/en/

Show More
Related

  • White Collar Crimes: Are Tobacco Companies Responsible?

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, it stated that the nicotine in smoking cigarettes can be very dangerous, damaging to the human body. It’s known that smoking can cause chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease and stroke. In addition, smoking also causes cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and bladder. Smoking tobacco products is also known to contribute to cancer of cervix, pancreas and kidneys. People that don’t smoke tobacco products can also be harmed by second hand smoke. Women who smoke while pregnant, put their baby at risk of have health problems.

    Read More

  • D. A. Re Essay

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before D.A.R.E., I was not mindful of the extensive damage cigarettes and other tobacco products cause. Cigarette smoke contains over 200 harmful chemicals, including rat poison. Because of nicotine, cigarettes are highly addictive. As a result, smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. It causes over 400,000 deaths annually.

    Read More

  • Tobacco: The Negative Health Impact Of Tobacco

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    Smoking cigarettes is a detrimental practice not only to the smoker, but also to everyone around the smoker. According to an article from the American Lung Association, “Health Effects” (n.d.), “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., causing over 438,000 deaths per year”. The umbrella term for tobacco use includes the use of cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs and chewing tobacco. While tobacco causes adverse health consequences, it also has been a unifying factor for change in public health. While the tobacco industries targets specific populations, public health specifically targets smokers, possible smokers, and the public to influence cessation, policies and education.

    Read More

  • Tobacco Cigarettes vs. Electronic Cigarettes

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    People often turn to cigarettes to suppress hunger or relieve stress (Dichter). After a short period of time, a person can become addicted to the satisfaction they get from smoking a cigarette. Certain tobacco products contain toxins, carcinogens, and poisons that are all extremely harmful to the human body. 60 chemicals that are contained in a tobacco cigarette are cancer-causing agents (Wexner). It is these chemicals that make cigarettes, as well as other tobacco products, so addictive to their users.

    Read More

  • A History of Tobacco and Smoking in America

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every year cigarette smoking is responsible for 500,000 premature deaths (Nugel), you do not want to be just another statistic, do you? America’s first cash crop was tobacco. That means that tobacco has been around for a really long time. It was not until 1865, though, that cigarettes were sold commercially. They were sold to soldiers at the end of the Civil War (Dowshen). From then, cigarettes spread like wildfire, and it was not until 1964 that anyone made a stand about the negative effects of tobacco and cigarettes. People start smoking for all different reasons, some to fit in and some to “escape”. Regardless, it is a horrible habit. 3900 children will try their first cigarette today. Amongst adults who currently smoke, 68% of them began at age 18 or younger, and 85% at 21 or younger (American Lung Association). And of all those people, 70% say if they were given another chance they would never have picked up that first cigarette (Tobacco Free Maine). Smoking is responsible for 1 and 5 deaths in the united states, and is the number one preventable cause of death (NLH). Smoking burns and there is no doubt about that, but before one picks up that cigarette, understand the negative effects on not only oneself, but others affected by ones poor choices, like second-hand smoke. Because of smoking cigarettes, many types of cancer, decrease of life quality, and negative health effects have become all too common in the world today.

    Read More

  • Cigarettes Should be Illegal

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Smoking

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, smoking can cause at least twelve different cancers, the deadliest of the twelve being lung cancer. The filthy habit of smoking cigarettes is the leading risk factor in not only developing this horrible disease, but eventually and inevitably dying from it. In addition to lung cancer one who smokes may also be diagnosed with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) or asthma. COPD and asthma both affect the lungs by making it hard to breath. While, asthma does not initially come from smoking it certainly makes having it worse. Having either COPD or asthma really depletes one’s everyday life by making a simple walk to

    Read More

  • How Smoking Affects Your Life and People Around You

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    Smoking can negatively affect your system in just a few days, and over time, smokers rarely think about the greater dangers, such as lung cancer, skin cancer, and birth defects. Although I don't smoke, I am still aware of these dangers and try to keep myself away from situations where I am surrounded by smoke. The majority of people don't know that breathing in second-hand smoke is actually worse than smoking a cigarette. People who are constantly surrounded by smokers in places such as bars and restaurants are affected by the smoke they breathe in. While people assume that inhaling smoke straight from the cigarette is worse than secondhand smoke, they forget that the smoker has a filter that holds back some of the toxins that people around them can easily breathe in.

    Read More

  • Banning Cigarettes

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    This year alone cigarettes will kill over 420,000 Americans, and many more will suffer from cancers, and circulatory and respiratory system diseases. These horrible illnesses were known to come from cigarettes for years. Recently the Food and Drug Administration declared nicotine, the main chemical in cigarettes, addictive. This explains why smokers continue to use cigarettes even though smokers are aware of the constantly warned about health dangers in cigarettes. Some researchers have also found out that smoking by pregnant women causes the deaths of over 5,000 babies and 115,000 miscarriages. The only way to get rid of the suffering and loss of life by cigarettes is to ban them. . For years cigarettes have been known to cause cancer, emphysema, and other horrible illnesses. 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. Nicotine makes it almost impossible for cigarette smokers to quit smoking because of its addictive nature, and with the cigarette manufacturers putting just enough nicotine in the so they cant be outlawed. The benefits of outlawing cigarettes greatly outnumber the disadvantages, for example, many scientists believe a link between smoking and a shortened life span exists between the two, a ban on cigarettes could increase life spans. Many studies suggest that billions of dollars now spent on smoking related. Smoking related illnesses could be reduced by outlawing cigarettes, families could save money by not purchasing cigarettes, and accidental fires costing millions of dollars caused by cigarettes would stop. Although a complete ban on cigarettes currently remains almost impossible, several organizations recently helped create a bill that could control cigarettes much in the same way the government now controls drugs. One such organization, the Food and Drug Administration, headed by David Kesslar drafted a major part, which would require manufacturers to disclose the 700 chemical additives in cigarettes, reduce the level of harmful chemicals, require cigarette companies to warn of the addictive nicotine, restrict tobacco advertising and promotion, and control the level of nicotine cigarettes contain.

    Read More

  • Smoking Should be Banned in Public Places

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    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. Some of the ingredients contained in cigarettes are a type of rat. poison, a type of paint stripper, a type of toilet cleaner, lighter. fuel, the chemical found in mothballs, poison that was once used in gas chambers and there is even a type of rocket fuel found in cigarettes (http://ash.org/additives.html).

    Read More

  • Cigarette Smoking Should Not Be Banned

    1520 Words  | 4 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition is over. Stanford, California: Department of History, Stanford University.

    Read More

  • Essay On Why Public Smoking Should Be Banned

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    Smoking causes bad health not only to the smoker, but to others too. The exposure of the smoke can be categorized into two kinds: The short-term exposure causes eye irritation and respiratory track irritation. The long-term effects are causing the more lethal problems like lung cancer, coronary heart disease, and increases stroke. All of these diseases come from the 4,000 chemicals found in tobacco in which 60 of them are carcinogens. There is no level of tolerance of the second hand exposure (Cooper, 2004).

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: The Dangers Of Smoking

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the biggest problems that people are faced with on a day-to-day basis is cigarette smoke. The sole cause for 480,000 deaths each year just in the United States is accredit to cigarettes(CDC). For a lot of the smokers the habit of smoking happens to assist them when under stress and dealing with issues that are unmanageable. Some smoke to appeal to their peers or simply because it “feels good.” Smoking one cigarette can lead to a major addiction. The effects of smoking hurt oneself and those amongst us. Smoking Kills as the ad portrays this revolver and cigarettes as the bullets, and also lists the side effects of smoking. Cigarettes causes cancer, increases the risk of you getting a stroke, highly addictive and causes a lot of health problems. Nearly 16

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

    1520 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Dangers of Smoking Cigarettes for Smokers” healthliteracy.worlded.org. Copyright 1995 by Marjorie Jacobs revised 1997, n.d web 14 April 2011

    Read More

  • The Causes and Effects of Smoking

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    Scientists and health officials have been arguing the detrimental effects smoking has on our health for many years. Smoking can lead to serious complications including asthma, pancreas, lung and stomach cancer due to the large number of carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals) and other various substances added to it. It is a health hazard for both smokers and non-smokers and it is especially harmful to unborn babies. Although smokers claim that it helps them to relax and release stress, the negative aspects of the habit take over the positive. As it has been stressed by the scientists and experts, there are some very severe reasons of smoking but its crucial consequences should also be taken into consideration.

    Read More

More about Smoking Life Away: The Harmful Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

Open Document