First let me start off by saying that the choice to smoke is yours and yours alone. Everyone has

their own freedom of choice to start smoking or never smoke at all. I am highly against the idea

but I nor anyone else can make you smoke or make you stop smoking. With that in mind

here is some things you probably don t know about tobacco. It causes nearly one of

every five deaths in the United States(source: www.cdc.gov.). It causes over 400,000 deaths

every year. This means smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes,

murders, suicides, and fires combined. That is a very convincing statement of why not to start

smoking. What is even more convincing than that is... every day nearly 3,000 people under the

age of eighteen become regular smokers.

How can you even think about smoking? If it doesn t kill you it will make you unhealthy

at the very least. Here is a statement to back up my opinion. An estimated 48 million adults in

the United States smoke cigarettes. Half of these people will die or have a disability. These

disabilities include chronic disease, lung cancer, as well as cancer to the cervix and larynx.

Then there is the economic issues. Not only on yourself but also our nation. First off the

the average cost of one pack of cigarettes is over two dollars and an average smoker has three to

four packs a week. Start adding all these up and you re spending hundreds of dollars a year.

The use of tobacco costs the U.S more than fifty billion dollars in medical expenditures. It also

now well documented that there is more than 40 chemicals in tobacco that can cause death.

There is only one in rat poison, I repeat , only one! I have had family members and friends die

from smoking. Even when

there are told it will kill them , they still continue to smoke. What is the reasoning behind this??!!

My mind is boggled that any person could start smoking especially when they continue to smoke

after they know what can happen from this insane act.

If you don t want to save money then at least, I hope, you want to save your life. By my findings

there is nothing you can benefit from smoking cigarettes.

My advice to people who want to start smoking don t and to those who already smoke stop.

Please don t make a careless decision that will hurt not only yourself but also your friends and

your family.