Essay, Research Paper: Smoking

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.


Word Count: 442