Smoking Essay, Research Paper

Some people neither care about their own nor other people’s health. People do

things everyday without caring how it will affect them or others. One of the things is

smoking openly, especially in public places. Approximately one-fifth of all deaths in the

United States can be blamed on smoking. Cigarette smoke delivers more than forty

known cancer-causing chemicals. There is also compelling evidence that regular

exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke threatens the health of those who don’t smoke.

Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in our society. In fact, nearly one

in five deaths in the United States results from the use of tobacco. Based on research

from the American Cancer Society, each year smoking claims more than 400,000 lives in

the US. Almost half of all smokers between the ages of thirty-five and sixty-nine die

prematurely. Smokers could be losing an average of twenty to twenty five years of their

life.

When you inhale the smoke of a cigarette, you are letting loose a chemical parade

that will march through some of your body’s vital organs like brain, lungs, heart and

blood vessels. Your body is exposed to chemicals that cause cancer, coronary heart

disease, stroke, and respiratory conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Smoking is also linked to a variety of disorders and conditions including the slowed

healing of wounds and infertility. One of the most powerful chemicals is nicotine.

Nicotine is what keeps you smoking. The carbon monoxide you inhale from tobacco

smoke replaces oxygen in your blood cells, robbing your heart, brain and the rest of your

body of this life-giving element. Smoking also deadens your senses of taste and smell so

food is not as good as it once was.

A burning cigarette is a health risk to everyone in the same room. The scientific

evidence of tobacco hazards is strongest for smokers themselves. However, there is

compelling evidence that regular exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke threatens the

health of those who do not smoke. Because of how tobacco burns, secondhand smoke

contains twice as much tar and nicotine per unit volume as does smoke inhaled from a

cigarette. It contains three times as much of a cancer-causing compound called 3,4

benzpyrene, five times as much carbon monoxide and possibly fifty times as much

ammonia.

Cigarette smoking is very harmful. It is harmful for both smoker and non-

smokers. People who smoke in public places 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.