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Kris Boulware
Ms. Sanchez
English 4
13 April 2015
Cigarettes
Smoking is one of the most common and deadliest habits in the world (Connolly 6).
Smoking should be considered a drug and should be made illegal because it causes more health
problems than some illegal substances, it harms the environment, and secondhand smokers fall
victims to these users. Smoking tobacco causes more health problems than some illegal
substances. Many other chemicals in tobacco smoke blend together as the tobacco burns
(Connolly 9). Smoking will be the cause of 10 million of every 60 million deaths around the
world (Connolly 22) .Smoking tobacco has immediate and long lasting effects on the body.
Loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs
(Connolly 13). People who dont smoke are equally at risk for the harmful effects of smokers
because if they are around it they are inhaling it.
Smoking tobacco harms the environment. Whatever the reason people start smoking, the
bit soon loses its attraction. Apart from the obvious health risks, Smoking is an ugly, unpleasant
habit (Connolly 7). Carbon monoxide replaces as much as 15 percent of the oxygen that would
normally be carried by the red blood cells (Connolly 24).
If parts of the brain suffer from a loss of oxygen, the smoker could have a stroke (Connolly 24).
People have known about the serious health risks of smoking for more than 50 years (Connolly
25).

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Secondhand smokers fall victims to people who smoke tobacco. Each year, the number of
cigarettes produced rose from 10 billion to 50 billion (Connolly 15). Nicotine creates a powerful
psychological dependence for regular smokers (Connolly 30). About 415,000 people die
prematurely each year in the U.S. as a result of smoking (Williams 18). Smoking is one of the
most addictive of human habits (Williams 19).
Some people may argue that they need to smoke in order to relieve stress. Nicotine
addicts make themselves believe this false phenomena. Some teenagers smoke because their
friends smoke (Connolly 30). Over half 52.2 percent of ten- to fourteen-year-olds who start
smoking do so because they see actors smoking in movies (Williams 50). Nicotine increases your
basal metabolic rate. You burn more calories (Williams 55) . Helps lose weight (Pros & Cons).
Smoking may also calm nerves and help increase concentration (Pros & Cons). Always having
something to do with your hands (Pros & Cons). Smoking cigarettes doesnt have any immediate
side effects (Pros & Cons). You can smoke 10 cigarettes at a party and still drive yourself home
(Pros & Cons). Smokers get to take a million breaks during the workday, wherein they can go
outside and smoke and make phone calls or walk around (Pros & Cons). Smokers all seem to
feel persecuted (Pros & Cons).
The impact of the tobacco settlement on growers has been social as well as economic
(Connolly 80). The 2.85 billion in farm revenues for families on 124,000 tobacco farms
(Williams 80). An estimated 23 percent of adult men and 18 percent of adult women in the
United States are smokers (Williams 88). Although many smokers believe there are some small
benefits to smoking, the consequences of the habit on the body far outweigh any positives ( Pros
& Cons). The American Lung Association estimates that cigarettes have 600 ingredients

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(Connolly 50). When exposed to fire, the reaction creates an additional 4,000 chemicals (Balkin
40). When exposed to the tissues of the mouth, esophagus and lungs, these chemicals can cause
serious damage (Balkin 44). This damage can lead to serious health problems, including
emphysema and cancer (Balkin 50). Smoking also has a devastating effect on your
cardiovascular health (Balkin 58). Smoking also increases your chances of developing blood
clots (Balkin 60).
Smoking also increases your chances of developing blood clots (Balkin 65). Tobacco
smoke even more cancerous than previously thought, for both smokers and non smokers who
breathe in the fumes, causing cancer in many more parts of the body than previously believed,
and panel experts has concluded (Williams 60). Although smoking has been established as a
leading cause of cancer ( Balkin 88). Scientists have only now been able to track more than one
generation of smokers to develop a clear picture of the dangers of tobacco (Williams 69). Types
of cancer newly declared to be caused by smoking were cancers of the stomach, liver, cervix,
uterus, kidney, nasal sinus and myeloid leukemia (Pros & Cons). According to the centers for
disease control and prevention, tobacco-related diseases are those in which the rate of risk among
smokers is higher than among nonsmokers ( Williams 90).
Habitual cigarette smoking leads to serious health complications, including emphysema,
cardiovascular disease, and various life-threatening cancers (Pros & Cons). Much of this damage
occurs because tobacco smoke always destroys the cleansing mechanism in the lungs, allowing
toxins to remain in prolonged contact with lung tissue. Moreover, the damage caused by
exposure to tobacco smoke progresses more rapidly after many years of smoking, eventually
resulting in the illness that causes more than 400,000 annual deaths in the United States alone.

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Tobacco is associated with major health consequences and constitutions the No.1 health problem
in this country. The longer one smokes, the harder it gets to quit. Africans - American youth
smoke less than any other group of teenagers. However, the percentage of African - Americans
teens smoke almost doubled between 1991 and 1997. This sharp increase has several factors,
including advertising the targets African - Americans and the us of nicotine to intensify a
marijuana high. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that African
American youth smoking rates had increased sharply from 12.6 % to 22.7 %, and 80% increase
from 1991 to 1997. As if to add insult to injury, the most recent report of the Surgeon General.
Tobacco companies know that young people who became addicted to tobacco may use it for their
lifetimes.
They have targeted advertising young people and teenagers. Since most adult tobacco
users started as teens or health officials is to prevent young people from even starting. Despite
the health warnings on cigarettes and all the new antismoking education and advertisements over
three thousand young people start smoking everyday. More than one thousand of those will
become addicted to nicotine, and over 70 percent will regret ever having started before they were
eighteen. Background Smokers over the age of 45 are the only group with an increase in
smoking prevalence, are the least likely to quit smoking, and bear most of the burden of tobaccorelated disease.
Research characterizing older adult perceptions of warning labels and anti-tobacco
messages has not been reported in the literature. This focus group study is part of a larger study
to characterize older smokers' perceptions of the risks and benefits associated with conventional

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and emerging tobacco products and determine the extent to which these perceptions relate to
exposure to pro- and anti-tobacco messages.
Positive framed anti-tobacco messages were identified as most effective. Text-only
warnings were seen as ineffective due to desensitizing effects of repeated exposure. Negative
messages were described as easy to ignore, and some trigger urges to smoke. Older adults are
knowledgeable about the risks and health effects of smoking.