Cause and Effect of Smoking
English 1301
Cause and Effect of Smoking The first time I heard a speech about the effects of smoking, I was in fifth grade. I well remember Deputy Becerra talking about the warnings against smoking. The last words she clearly spoke, were, “this cigarette in my hand is a death sentence”. After the presentation, for days, I kept contemplating on the subject and the effects. I asked myself, why would anybody be tempted or drawn to light up that cigarette? It did not make any sense to me. Five years later, at the age of fifteen, I tried my first cigarette. Since then, seventeen years have gone by. Our world is progressing at the speed of light. We are having technological breakthroughs, new discoveries in the world of Medicine. It is the modern revolution of growth and development. If anyone was watching us from outer space, they would say that we have a brilliant mastermind. Why then can our brilliant mastermind stop us from killing ourselves by lighting up a nicotine stick, and inhaling over 4,000 chemicals, in which 69 of them are known to cause cancer? What is it about smoking, that hundreds of thousands of people are drawn to do it, despite health risks or negative consequences. According to research, nine out of ten smokers begin smoking before age eighteen. The average age a person begins smoking is at age thirteen, without considering the possibility that they may become addicted. By the time they reach age eighteen they may find themselves prisoners of the nicotine for the rest of their lives.
Going back to my teen years, I recall a lot of my friends as already smokers. In my experience, I can say people are influenced by their surroundings, and generally they adapt, good or bad. As teenagers we are drawn to fallow a crowd. Who really wants to be an outsider, an outcast. It is human nature to want to belong or relate to something or someone. The stage of adolescence could be a vulnerable period. In deed peer pressure
Cause and Effect of Smoking The first time I heard a speech about the effects of smoking, I was in fifth grade. I well remember Deputy Becerra talking about the warnings against smoking. The last words she clearly spoke, were, “this cigarette in my hand is a death sentence”. After the presentation, for days, I kept contemplating on the subject and the effects. I asked myself, why would anybody be tempted or drawn to light up that cigarette? It did not make any sense to me. Five years later, at the age of fifteen, I tried my first cigarette. Since then, seventeen years have gone by. Our world is progressing at the speed of light. We are having technological breakthroughs, new discoveries in the world of Medicine. It is the modern revolution of growth and development. If anyone was watching us from outer space, they would say that we have a brilliant mastermind. Why then can our brilliant mastermind stop us from killing ourselves by lighting up a nicotine stick, and inhaling over 4,000 chemicals, in which 69 of them are known to cause cancer? What is it about smoking, that hundreds of thousands of people are drawn to do it, despite health risks or negative consequences. According to research, nine out of ten smokers begin smoking before age eighteen. The average age a person begins smoking is at age thirteen, without considering the possibility that they may become addicted. By the time they reach age eighteen they may find themselves prisoners of the nicotine for the rest of their lives.
Going back to my teen years, I recall a lot of my friends as already smokers. In my experience, I can say people are influenced by their surroundings, and generally they adapt, good or bad. As teenagers we are drawn to fallow a crowd. Who really wants to be an outsider, an outcast. It is human nature to want to belong or relate to something or someone. The stage of adolescence could be a vulnerable period. In deed peer pressure