Cigarettes should be banned

Cigarettes should be banned
According to The New York Times, Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. ()Around 400,000 people die each year from smoking and that does not include the 50,000 who die from exposure to secondhand smoke or the 8.6 million whose illnesses are caused by smoking. Smoking is harmful to the environment, the user and everyone around them and should be banned.
Do people not care about the warning labels on cigarette boxes that read; Smoking Kills? So then why do people smoke? Most smokers started in their teens falling into peer pressure or trying to be “cool” and fit in. Others had parents that smoked, so they tried it to be like them. But after having just one cigarette they get addicted and continue smoking.
The reason people get addicted is because nicotine increases your metabolic rate, so you burn more calories, causing some smokers to lose weight. Some people think that smoking is the only way to lose weight, so they continue smoking (Which is a disorder all on its own). Smoking may also calm nerves and help increase concentration. However, this is usually an illusion perpetuated by the addiction cycle. When a smoker's nicotine levels drop and they go into withdrawal, they may feel anxious and unable to focus. Once nicotine levels return to normal after smoking, their ability to focus returns, and her overall feeling of well being also returns.()
Not only do you get addicted from smoking, you also get some pretty bad effects from it. Smoking Destroys Appearance. Film the noir movies make smoking look glamorous. The results from smoking are stained brown teeth, and a faul stench that permeates the hair, clothing and breath. Smoking deprives your skin of oxygen and nutrients, damages collagen and elastin and can leave your face as sagging and furrowed as a chow dog and it also prematures wrinkling of the face, body and inner arms. Those are just some pretty minor effects to what I am about to talk about. Smoking cuts life expectancy shorter, on average about 13 years. With all the chemicals in a cigarette it is a miracle it does not cut off more years. There are more than 7,000 chemicals in tobacco and tobacco smoke. Here a just a few: Tar, which gives cigarettes flavor, is the same thick black substance used to pave roads and driveways. Formaldehyde is the same stuff used to preserve dead animals. Cyanide is the main ingredient in rat poison. Lead is found in pencils and some kinds of paint. Acetone is a common ingredient in paint and nail polish remover. Ammonia is also in cigarettes. Hydrazine, a chemical used in jets and rocket fuel.
Imagine, how much harm you do to your body every single time you smoke a cigarette. Every time you smoke, tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney. The effects of tar in cigarette smoke include increased risk of bronchitis. Bronchitis occurs when the tissues of the brachial tubes become irritated and inflammated. This causes breathing to be harder than normal, resulting in a constant, hacking cough and wheezing.
Emphysema is another risk of smoking. Emphysema develops when the air sacs at the base of tiny air passages called bronchioles gradually break down due to either a protein deficiency or smoking. Symptoms include shortness of breath, chest tightness, chronic coughing, fatigue and decreased physical activity ability. Emphysema eventually prevents oxygen entering the lungs from reaching the blood stream. Treatment cannot reverse lung damage from emphysema but can slow down the progression.
Other risks of smoking include blood clots, high blood pressure, strokes, weight loss or gain, heart attacks, cancer and death. The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. This can cause heart attacks and stroke. During withdrawal it slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.
Second hand (passive) smoke is just as bad as smoking first hand. It causes nonsmokers to breathe in the same nicotine and chemicals as smokers involuntarily, putting them at risk for the same health concerns. There's no safe level of secondhand smoke exposure. Babies are especially at risk. Breathing in secondhand smoke increases the occurrence of ear infections, asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis, cancer and SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
If you're a nursing mother who smokes, you should be aware of how you can minimize the effect your habit has on your baby. Even if you smoke away from your baby, nicotine and other cigarette chemicals still cling to your clothes and seep from your skin, making it more than likely that you'll contaminate your home even if you smoke outside. Smoking is also associated with a reduced milk supply, early weaning and the prevention of the milk ejection. Nicotine makes its way into breast milk when you smoke. Nicotine can cause agitation, fussiness, restlessness and an increased heart rate in your baby. Never smoke while pregnant! Cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of low birth weight, prematurity, spontaneous abortion, and death.
Smokers can benefit so much from quitting. I believe that if the government were to make smoking illegal it could help quitting be easier for them. They can get so much from quitting. They would be saving a lot of money, they would also be praised by family and friends for quitting, they would have better relationships, they would feel better physically and mentally and emotionally, and they could live longer.
Many people who have tried to quit but could not, try switching to low-tar cigarettes. That does not help in fact they are even worse because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs. Another thing smokers try to use in order to quit is a nicotine patch. The patches have enough nicotine they need to stay away from a cigarette but it is still harming their body. Another tool to get away from smoking is the e cigarette which is a smokeless electronic one. As the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes have not been fully studied, consumers of e-cigarette products currently have no way of knowing: whether e-cigarettes are safe for their intended use, how much nicotine or other potentially harmful chemicals are being inhaled during use, or if there are any benefits associated with using these products. Additionally, it is not known if e-cigarettes may lead young people to try other tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes, which are known to cause disease and lead to premature death. So it not advised to use them.
With all the deaths and dieses that are due to smoking, it is interesting why the government has not banned them yet. It is a multi billion corporation but regardless it is harming the public. Why do we make such a big deal of suicide if smoking is the same thing, just a longer process. Why do we punish people that kill if we don’t do anything about cigarettes? Even the labels say SMOKING KILLS.