According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), cigarette smoking is responsible for over 480 thousand deaths each year in the country. Smoking tobacco was introduced to the United States around the 15th century but only became popular around 1919 due to the horrors of the Great War. Initially, it was only men who smoked cigarettes. However, after the 1920’s, smoking among women became acceptable in the societies. At that time, people were not aware of the health effects of the toxic chemicals inhaled during smoking. Smoking develops distress into a person’s life, ranging from financial troubles to health and social issues.
In Los Angeles, the average price for a pack of cigarette is about ten dollars (Nisperos 1). Therefore, someone smoking a pack a day spends around one hundred and seven dollars a week on cigarettes. The annual spending on cigarette for such a person may be more than nine thousand and five hundred dollars. Considering smokers who earn average hourly wages, then they would have to work for about forty-five minutes just to be able to buy a cigarette pack (Health Promotion Agency 1). Buying and smoking of cigarettes becomes a formidable task for a number of smokers. In essence, cigarettes are nothing but temporary stress relievers which indicates that people living below the poverty level are more likely to smoke than those who live above the poverty level.
Smoking related illnesses cost about 300 billion dollars a year. 170 billion of that amount come from direct medical care for adults (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The momentous figures in monetary terms that go to meet expenditure for treatment of tobacco related diseases show that tobacco smoking has turned out to be a serious menace. The high amount also shows explicitly the high price that people spend for an opportunity to be able to cure avoidable diseases. At the same time, the family and friends of the affected smoker have to forego certain needs to meet the treatment cost which directly interferes with personal financial ability or abilities.
In a single cigarette, there are approximately six hundred ingredients whose burning releases seven thousand different chemicals in the air. Seventy-nine of these chemicals are cancerous and poisonous. Lead, a chemical also found in car batteries and gasoline, is one of the most cancerous chemicals released (Health Promotion Agency). Most tobacco smokers begin at an early age without being fully informed of possible hazards. Every day, an average of 2,500 youths begin smoking while approximately four hundred others become daily smokers (CDC 3). Needless to say, many of these people begin their slow suicidal process at a very young age. Moving on, it is reported that smoking causes more deaths each year than the combined deaths from alcohol use, vehicle injuries, and firearm-related injuries. More so, smoking causes various types of cancer such as blood cancer, lung cancer, colon cancers, kidney cancer among others (CDC 2). Such information should invoke serious concern and conscience among smokers and motivate them to stop smoking.
Secondhand smoke is the smoke exhaled from burning tobacco products and is just as critical as firsthand smoking. Burning tobacco products exhaled by an active smoker has an equal effect on a passive smoker who only inhales the exhaled tobacco fumes. Most passive smokers find themselves surrounded by active smokers unwillingly. In some unfortunate events, some parents smoke around their young children. Such cases have proven to cause severe asthma attacks and respiratory infections among children. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that two out of every five children aged three to eleven are exposed to regular secondhand smoke (CDC 1). Perhaps, this is the reason why such children grow up believing that smoking is an acceptable norm.
Tobacco smoking also presents environmental issues to the society. It takes between ten months and ten years for a cigarette filters to fully decompose or biodegrade. Cigarette filters contribute to about thirty-eight percent of all collected litter. Due to their toxic nature, littered cigarette filters spread toxic chemicals into our environment which end up contaminating water bodies and reservoirs. Such toxic chemicals may poison animals in the streets and fisheries or marine life in the water bodies and reservoirs (Truth Initiative).
In conclusion, the information presented in this paper attempts to illustrate that smoking creates distress within the smokers, their family and friends. Also, some people do not see the reason to quit now since they believe that the damage has already been done. However, as the saying goes, it is never too late to quit. Quitting smoking lowers one’s chances of having smoking-related diseases and may also add more years to one’s life no matter when a person quits. People must be smart and progressive while making such decisions since smoking affects them, the people around them, and their loved ones.
