Why I Think Smoking Should Be Banned

Why I Think Smoking Should Be Banned

(NOTE: Please do not take any offence if you smoke. This is just one person’s opinion).

Growing up, I was always taught to be extremely cautionary of passive smoking. My dad would always tell me to hold my breath whenever we went past smokers or polluted air from fuelled cars. Being so young and having no other guidance, my mind would sponge the information in and it would be a valuable lesson that I would carry with me for the rest of my life. But it would also be a burden to carry, too, especially when I would have to hold my breath for an excruciatingly long time, for crossing roads or sitting next to a table of smokers outside, when out for a meal.  

I recall my parents and ex-smoker grandparents constantly repeating themselves: “Don’t smoke, you’ll get cancer”, “Don’t make the same mistake I did.” “You’re still so young!”

I still have a firm belief in those words that, those who smoke will eventually get cancer or some form of terrible illness at some point in their life (anyone for yellow nails and rotten teeth?).  

When I was about four or five, my great grandmother died at the good age of 83. Although this is an excellent age to live up to, I have always felt like she could have been around for longer if she hadn’t started smoking when she was in her twenties– that I could have gotten to know her even better as I grew up and become as close to her as I am my gran.  I now fear that something of the same nature will happen to my own gran, in the near future. She, too, began smoking when she was fairly young- of course, this was just a result of her having grown up in a house of smoke – at the time when people weren’t too bothered about the consequences of inhaling the nicotine.

These are my personal reasons for why I want smoking to be banned. Nobody wants a loved one taken away too early. They should die naturally, when their bodies are ready to decay and their souls are at ease (not from coughing all the time) to go along into the afterlife, where they can have the front-row seat, watching and looking after their family and friends.

Statistics say that those who smoke regularly are more likely to suffer from mild to severe cases of depression and paranoia or an increase of their blood pressure and stress levels.

Smokers waste on average, £1672.80 per annum on cigarettes - that's $2,548 in US Dollars! The money that smokers waste on feeding their addiction is the equivalent of paying 61 years worth of petrol for your car or approximately 98695 Wispa Chocolate Bars! To spend this amount of money per year - just to inhale it and chimney it out of your system through coughing fits- is downright ridiculous. Who would want to buy a cancer stick?

But not every smoker takes pleasure in smoking. Millions have tried to quit the worse-than-heroin addiction and -according to statistics- only 10% of the population succeed. It’s especially hard for chain smokers, though, because they have smoked for many years but that doesn’t mean that they cannot quit, too, it is just harder for them.  

What harmful effects can smoking have on us?

Nicotine can have many effects; the main ones being cancer, holes in the necks (through chewing tobacco) and high blood pressure. Cancer is a very serious illness that can really make people ill and  sometimes people pass away because of its extremities. Cancer has no limit of punishment – it will take whoever it wants, whenever it wants. Cancer can be caused by smoking because of the chemicals and additives in the tar. Tar has around 4,000 chemicals- 60 of them being known as cancerous chemicals.

" Chemicals such as cyanide, benzene, ammonia and formaldehyde are in the tar of cigarettes and are let loose in your body by the smoking of cigarettes." - How Does Smoking Cause Cancer?

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4564403_smoking-cause-cancer.html <-------------- A good website explaining all about smoke.
 

But it's not just cigarette smoking that can cause smoker, there has been a huge increase in the past few years, of people getting cancer from chewing tobacco. Smoking can also cause your nails to turn yellow, give your oily skin, give you spots, make your breath smell awful and it can cause your hair to thin and greasy. It can weaken your bones, shorten your life span, cause breathing problems and make your clothes smell: just because you can’t smell anything, it doesn't mean that others can’t either.

What could the Government do to help?

I personally think that should the Government ban the media from publicising celebrity smokers. It could lead to a healthier younger generation (and perhaps even encourage the older generation to quit for their children) because they wouldn’t feel like they should need to copy their role models’ smoking habits in order to fit in. It could also increase the youth brain power and give the younger generation a higher percentage of their passing exams statistics, and lead to more employment. This could potentially help the younger generation grow up with a worldly-known moral that smoking only leads people down a dark path of body destruction and an emotional and physical impact. The non-smoking adults of the future could then publicise the message that smoking is bad, to the newer generation and so on and so on. This could also clean our air bit by bit, and car fuels may be changed too because of the terrible effects it has on human and animal health.

So, these are my reasons as to why I think that smoking should be banned. I hate smoke, always have, always will. I never have tried smoking, never will and I will forever pity those that smoke their life away – like drinking juice from a straw, smoke will suck your life away.

Teen heart-throb Robert Pattinson could convince young females to smoke.

Smoking being publicised by pop star, Rihanna.

~ Heather

I do not own these images.