How Smoking Kills

We are all aware with the dramatic warnings that are printed on cigarette packs around the world, whether or not we smoke: "Cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health." In 2003, the World Health Organization required these messages to be printed on all tobacco products in an effort to increase public knowledge of the negative effects of smoking and, quite plainly, to scare us away from the risky behavior. However, despite the WHO's best efforts, Americans continue to lead blissfully ignorant lives. Unfortunately for us, overcoming our vices typically requires more than a passive-aggressive sticky note. Despite the fact that up to 400,000 people dies prematurely annually globally due to health conditions associated with smoking, with America alone contributing above 50,000 to this number, the citizens continue to waste billions of dollars on tobacco products.

Why do people smoke then yet they are aware of the consequences of the ordeal? When one posts the same question to any smoking addict, the most likely answer would be “I have been trying to quit for years now." People do not want to stop using something that is killing them because of addiction, and if this is true then other questions arise: why should a drug that poses harm and addiction be permitted in America? If there are indeed no health benefits of cigarettes, then why do we still have them as legal commodities? If some harmful commodities are illegal, then tobacco products should also fall under the same category of illicit commodities.

Unfortunately, risks associated with smoking of the tobacco products affect both the real smokers and the non-smokers (Prabhat and Peto). Non-smokers get involved as secondhand victims whereby the smoke is inhaled involuntarily from the tobacco that is being used by the other people. According to (Proctor), the concentrations of carcinogens and other chemicals in the smoke inhaled in such manners is even higher and more toxic than the one coming from the mainstream smoke. Because of its contents (which is believed to be 7000 plus chemicals, of which hundreds are poisonous), the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) finds that even exposure to the secondhand smoke for a small duration could be detrimental to one's health. Tobacco contributes 80-90% of lung cancer deaths in women and men across the globe. Indeed, studies have indicated that smoking increases the risk of developing cancer by 23 times in men as compared to women; however, other factors like environmental and age also affects the development of the disease (Fairchild, Bayer, and Colgrove).

On children, the secondhand smoke poses a lot of negative impacts like ear infections, asthma attacks, respiratory infections and the worst being the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Secondhand does not discriminate the adults either. Indeed, it has an immediate effect on the heart and the blood vessels. Two out of five children between 3-11 years old exposed to secondhand smoke regularly. Between the years 2005 to 2009 alone, it was estimated by CDC that secondhand smoke had caused over 34,000 deaths related to heart diseases and 7,300 deaths linked to lung cancer. The most frustrating part is that even an attempt to stay away from the smoke may not help at times because it can infiltrate into the apartment complexes through the hallways, ventilation units and the stairwells. Lower income individuals are more exposed to tobacco use and secondhand smoke due to increased poor health & decreased health resources.

Despite the health challenges that come with tobacco use, it is imperative to note that Big Tobacco is an industry that employs millions of people across the world from the sale of cigarette. However, there is nothing as valuable as life; anything that compromises the right to life is not worth legalizing no matter how much profit it may appear to be. It is fair to have an environment where people continue to die from health-related conditions attributed to a particular product in the name of economic profitability. The tobacco industry has continued to thrive because of the addictive nature of its products. According to the American Lung Association, tobacco products cause cancer because of the toxic chemicals like carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia.

With the potential health problems and the cautions that will always accompany every piece of a cigarette pack, one is just left to wonder why people continue to smoke. According to Proctor, people smoke to get fun; as a form of reward; or as a way of relaxing. But is it a way to create fun, or a method of killing oneself? Apparently, most people find themselves deep into the smoking ordeal because the cigarettes contain nicotine which is highly addictive. Studies have indicated that up to 90% of the smokers in America started at the age of 20 (Prabhat and Peto). Advertisements and the addictive nature of tobacco make those who have already begun to find it very difficult to stop. Indeed, Proctor asserts that the industry spends up to 400 dollars per customer annually on product promotion techniques like coupons, mailers, and other direct marketing efforts. Nicotine, the naturally occurring substance in tobacco is highly addictive because it travels very fast into the brain causing a sense of relief and temporary relaxation. Quitting the drugs have therefore become difficult because the promotions outnumber the warnings, and also nicotine is incredibly addictive to the extent that controlling it is a challenge to the users themselves.

The people who oppose the banning of cigarette use argue that the number of deaths arising from tobacco use can be reduced through the E-cigarettes (Fairchild, Bayer, and Colgrove). E-cigarettes are electronic devices that are activated by the battery to heat the nicotine solution to vaporization without the actual burning of tobacco, thus delivering puffs of smoke. The truth of the matter is that E-cigarettes are not the solution, provided that they can still produce the nicotine. Most problems associated with cigarette smoking arise from nicotine. Providing a substitute to tobacco burning could only reduce the environmental aspects but not the health issues. My assertion is supported by Prabhat and Peto when they state that poison control centers related to exposure to e-liquids has risen from 1 per month to about 300 per month. The cases of overdose from liquid nicotine are more evident than ever before with the side effects being nausea, vomiting, high concentrations, and deaths.

Smoking-related problems affect both the environment and the economy of America. Environmentally, cigarette industries use up to four miles of paper per hour to package and roll the cigarettes. Besides, pollution of the environment is also a frequent phenomenon that is significantly affected by the dropped cigarette leftover which are non-bio degradable. The cigarettes are sometimes dropped aimlessly dirtying the environment, besides causing pollution. Economically, most individual smokers spend above 2000 dollars every year on cigarettes instead of investing the money into other productive businesses. Also, patients who are admitted to hospitals require medical treatments that are very expensive. The families of such people end up spending up to $300 billion on medication alone, thus causing a lot of strain in the families' well-being. In California alone, the state government pays over $40 million annually on litter clean up.

It is true that the government is likely to lose revenue if the ban on tobacco was to be imposed today. However, by doing so, millions of lives would be saved. Should we care more about revenue than lives? There is nothing as valuable on earth as the human life. Everything we do affects our physical or mental health. A healthy person can come up with other alternative ways of generating income and therefore, the ban on smoking improves the society and promotes a robust economy.

Work Cited

Fairchild, Amy L., Ronald Bayer and James Colgrove. "The renormalization of smoking? E-cigarettes and the tobacco "endgame." New England Journal of Medicine 370.4 (2014): 293-295.

Prabhat, Jha and Richard Peto. "Global effects of smoking, of quitting, and of taxing tobacco." New England Journal of Medicine 370 (2014): 60-68.

Proctor, Robert N. "Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition." Tobacco Control Journal 22.1 (2015): 1.