Worldwide, people have been worried about AIDS and others disasters. Unfortunately, there is not any solution for them yet and there is an even bigger problem, which is forgotten, the smoking issue. According to the World Health Organization`s (WHO) reports, 1.5 million people died of HIV-related illnesses worldwide in 2013. On the other hand, reports show people that the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year. According to the article “The danger of being a passive smoker”, when a cigarette is lit, more than 4,000 toxic substances are released to the air. Consequently, the health of a passive smoker is as compromised as, or even worse than, the active smoker’s. There is not a safe level of exposure to cigarettes` smoke, because just a small amount per day can cause cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases with the same probability of an active smoker. A few decades ago, smoking was synonymous of status, glamour and power. This activity was linked with attractive advertisements which made people believe smoking was something positive. Advertising makes cigarettes look as a non-harmful element and advertisement shows that smoking is an acceptable social habit. Nowadays the reality has changed because of general knowledge of damages caused by tobacco. Many anti-smoking campaigns have been developed all over the world. The reduction of tobacco use is very important, since smoking harms the environment and society, and jeopardizes the health of people in irreversible ways.
Health Effects
Even though people are aware of that smoking dangers humans` health, most of the people do not have enough information about how tobacco affects human`s health, and they are not actually well-informed about how terrible illnesses they may face with. According to the American Lung Association cigarettes contain about 600 ingredients. When people burn, they generate more than 7,000 chemicals and many of those chemicals are enormously poisonous, at least 69 of which can cause cancer. Effects of smoking start from humans` mouths by causing gum inflammation or infection. At first, these problems, gum inflammation or infection, lead to bad breath, tooth decay, and tooth loss respectively, which are the greatest effects of smoking in the human mouth because, they can lead to the risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, and esophagus. The other effect of smoking occurs in humans` central nervous systems. Nicotine, which is a central nervous system stimulant ingredient in tobacco that makes people addicted to cigarettes, reaches the brain. It makes people feel more energized for a little while, but then people feel tired and crave more as their bodies lose the nicotine amount. Another effect of nicotine is that the human body has the stress hormone that lowers the effect of nicotine. Therefore, when nicotine is not taken into the body for a while, the abuser gets more and more nervous. Thus, it gets harder to refuse cigarettes for abusers. Dependent on central nervous system, smoking increases the risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, and poor eyesight. It also weakens the abusers` sense of taste and smell, so what they drink and eat becomes less enjoyable for them.
Harmful effects of smoking (Lung Cancer Center)
In another meaning, life starts becoming less enjoyable for those abusers. Besides all these damages on human body, the most common effect of smoking is lung cancer. According to Quit Victoria, more than 80% of cases of lung cancer are due to smoking. When a cigarette is smoked, many harmful chemical ingredients in tobacco are taken into humans` bodies. Those chemical ingredients interfere with the body`s method of filtering air and cleaning out the lungs. So, abusers start getting chemical ingredients and dirty air into their bodies instead of getting fresh air. The more people smoke, the dirtier their lungs get. Thus, the smoke leads to overproduction of mucus in lungs and mucus makes smokers suffer from chronic bronchitis and `smokers’ cough`. Long-term smoking destroys the normal lung structure, and the elastic walls of the small airways within the lungs are broken down. This ends up with reducing the amount of long tissue available for the transfer of oxygen from the air to the blood. The important point about lungs is when the lung tissue gets damaged, it is irreversible to be repaired which means that smokers get the result(s) of the damages in their lungs eventually in their lives. Smoking harms almost all the organs of human body badly and this is the most dangerous problem. When a person becomes ill because of smoking tobacco, healing that person might be an extremely complicated situation for doctors. There is not just one organ in the human body that is affected when a cigarette is lit. In most of the treatments for smoking-related illnesses, patients suffer a huge amount of pain. In addition, there can not be a way that a person can smoke safely. Quit smoking before it is too late, quiters win.
When people wonder about why they smoke, a common answer is about the way they were raised (usually family members have the habit of smoking). According to Center for Disease Control and Preventing (CDC), young people who start smoking in the ages from of 18 to 26 are 60% in our societies. For example, three children ages from 10 to 15 from same family who face a rough environment, and weak observation could not be aware of the health dangers of smoking. The reasons for them to smoke could be because of seeing family members smoking, tense atmosphere or because friends` approval. Moreover, youth smoke for non-apparent reason. When youth start smoking they think they look mature. In addition, parents who smoke in front of their children show as if it is a natural habit. Smoking affects our young generation and the next generation. Protecting youths’ health and raising the awareness on them is essential because they play huge part in progress and environment.
Environmental Pollution
Environmental pollution cigarette butts cause (Yorkshire Smokefree)
Last, but not least, not only smoking negatively affects people who exposure to tobacco smoke in both active and passive ways, but there are also dangers from smoking that do not disappear even though cigarette is extinguished. There is a large number of cigarettes purchased every year that end up littering sidewalks, waterways, parks, beaches and public roads. They directly threaten the environment and gradually destroy natural resources. In fact, people cannot predict what will happen tomorrow, but they clearly know that smoking is a massive impact which harmfully affects ours atmosphere and becomes a factor of deforestation. Productions of cigarettes extremely damage our forests. According to Clean Up Australia Rubbish Report, approximately 5 million hectare are destroyed by drying tobacco, and nearly 7% of bushfires and about 14 deaths each year. The reason of this situation is that people do not have enough awareness of discarding cigarettes. Besides that, toxic chemicals in cigarette butts are a danger to our aquatic ecosystems because smoking is one of the most significant factors decrease in the marine creatures. A typical truth from researching of many experts in Australia, cigarette butts lying in our streets and gutters are drifted out to our lakes, rivers, and beaches because of raining. The cigarette chemicals in these butts impact our water quality and can be harmful for our marine life. Sometimes, cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of young birds, sea turtles and other creatures as well. Additionally, cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals consist of arsenic, cadmium, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that could pollute the environment and harm natural ecosystems because they are mostly made of plastic and only decompose under ideal conditions, making them a long-lasting threat to the environment. As a result, smoking is one of the negative activities which people should pay attention in order to avoid environmental degradation in our life. Our life will be cleaned as long as smoking will be controlled by human awareness.
False Incentive
Many researches infer that smoking is a very harmful habit, but others show some positive effects of smoking, such as reducing risks of obesity, regulating mood and helping with some depression patients. Christopher Wanjek suggests that the nicotine in tobacco smoke is an appetite suppressant, which makes smokers snack less and lose weight. Furthermore, tobacco’s smoke can help psychiatric patients because it contains substances with antidepressant effects. However, there are other healthier ways to get those same results. Doing exercises and following a good diet can bring many benefits as well. Those habits make people healthier because they do not gain much weight and they do not get stressed. Kelli Brown affirms that a regular 30-45 minutes of light exercise, such as brisk walking, bicycling or even home activities can reduce the risks of developing coronary disease, hypertension, colon cancer and diabetes and physical activity reduces many of the physical symptoms associated with stress and illness. In addition, it is common knowledge that diet and health are closely linked. When people eat well, they do not need many different outlets to get rid of stress and other problems. The solution is simple because people should just follow their natural needs. Finally, smoking is a habit that people must quit, since a life without cigarettes could be longer and healthier. Besides yellow teeth and bad breath, skin tends to age faster in smokers. Furthermore, if the production of cigarettes was reduced, saving the environment and making social contacts would be easily possible.
Quiters Win
In final analysis, smoking is linked to high rates of death and diseases of passive smokers besides the active smokers, since they are exposed to toxic and carcinogenic components in the air. The epidemic of tobacco is a global concern. The current and future generations should be protected from social, environmental and economic devastating consequences of consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke by many actions, as providing convenient public places for smokers and non-smokes, controlling emissions from tobaccos’ production, hampering positive publicity about smoking, helping nicotine addicted by social programs and making the access to cigarettes restricted to young people.