Tobacco 2 Essay, Research Paper

TOBACCO ???

It is a proven fact that tobacco companies target teenagers in their advertisements. But who wouldn’t spend six million dollars to target us? Teenagers are the next generation. We are the ones that are going possess the big houses, the fancy cars, and most importantly, the big bucks. We’re the ones that are going to college with our parent’s money, and we are the ones most susceptible to advertisement ploys and we are the ones that need peer approval. All these factors make teenagers excellent targets for the ever present need to sell more cigarettes and other tobacco products. It seems that we are stupid enough to fall for it though, because teen-age smoking has risen sharply over the last year and is steadily increasing. It would be a different story if the media didn’t inform us of the ill affects of smoking both mentally and physically, but they do almost everyday. Yet smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides and fires combined!

Cigarettes contain an addictive drug called nicotine , which is ingested by a person through the inhalation of cigarette smoke. Nicotine contains over 500 chemicals such as formaldehyde, cyanide, and insecticide. The cigarette smoke also contains tar which severely damages the mouth, throat, and lungs. Nicotine is a stimulant that affects the brain and central nervous system in 10 seconds and it also affects the body. The immediate affects of nicotine on the body include: increase in blood pressure, increase in heart rate, thickening of blood, narrowing of arteries, decrease in skin temperature, increase in respiration, vomiting, and diarrhea. The long term effects of nicotine on the body include: blockage of blood vessels, thus a slower heartbeat than a non-smoker’s at rest, depletion of vitamin C; reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system, making it harder to fight off dangerous infections; cancer of the mouth; throat; and lungs; cancer of the upper respiratory tract; hurting physical fitness in terms of performance and endurance; bronchitis and/or emphysema; stomach ulcers; weight loss; dryness and wrinkling of skin, and often times giving the skin a leathery appearance. Many of us love sports. Every school has some sort of sport activity and everyone wants to be involved in it. Yet if you are a smoker you feel left out, seeing how you have or probably will have, shortness of breath, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, thickening of blood, narrowing of arteries, decreased skin temperature, increased respiration, vomiting, and diarrhea .Other possible effects include, reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system, cancer of the mouth, throat, and lungs, cancer of the upper respiratory tract, bronchitis or emphysema, stomach ulcers, and production of abnormal sperm. All of these factors make it hard to get involved in sports and any other activities

The decision to quit smoking is one decision you will never regret! Smoking is related to about 419,000 deaths each year. Smokers who quit before age 50 have half the risk of dying in the next 15 years compared with those who continue to smoke. Smokers Die Younger. If you smoke less than half a pack a day, your chances of dying younger are 30% higher than non-smokers. If you smoke 1 to 2 packs a day, the risk increases by 100%. If you smoke 2 or more packs a day, the risk of dying younger increases by 140% !!!

Next, smoking doesn t just harm the smoker, but family members, coworkers and others who breathe in the smoker’s cigarette smoke, called secondhand smoke. Among infants to 18 months of age, secondhand smoke is associated with as many as 300,000 cases of bronchitis each year! Second hand smoke from a parent’s cigarette increases a child’s chances for cases of coughing and wheezing, and worsens asthma conditions. If both parents smoke, a teenager is more than twice as likely to smoke than a young person whose parents both are nonsmokers. There is a financial cost for smokers and nonsmokers alike: 1 pack per day = $728 a year, 2 packs per day = $1456 a year, etc. Another thing is that smoking is responsible for an estimated one in five U.S. deaths and costs the U.S. at least 97.2 billion each year in tobacco-related health care costs and lost productivity.

Why quit? Quitting smoking makes a difference right away you can taste and smell food better. Your breath smells better. Your cough goes away. This happens for men and women of all ages, even those who are older. It happens for healthy people as well as those who already have a disease or condition caused by smoking. Quitting smoking cuts the risk of lung cancer, many other cancers, heart disease, stroke, other lung diseases, and other respiratory illnesses. You save money and enjoy a better, healthier quality of life!