Smoking: Do the Dangers Outweigh the Benefits?

Ethics: Smoking
Smoking is very hazardous to your health, and yet many people still do it. Despite knowing the dangers and all the discouragement from the anti-smoking people out there, they choose to smoke. Does this mean that there is a logical reason for them to do so? In this essay, I will investigate why people smoke and the effects of smoking before deciding for myself whether or not the dangers of smoking out-weigh the benefits.
Smoking has consequences in both the short-term and the long-term. Smoking can cause or worsen various health problems including asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and more. Smoking can also cause premature aging, like wrinkles and pale skin. It also causes bad breath. Smoking also increases the risk of high blood pressure. It is also one of the causes of pollution. Furthermore, babies whose mothers smoke have a higher chance of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and a lower birth weight. Another risk is second hand smoking. When people smoke around others it is also harmful to the people around them who also have to breathe the smoke produced by the cigarettes. Smoking causes discoloration of your hands and teeth, causing them to become yellowed. Also, smoking increases the risk of a fire. Smoking does have its good points, however. Smoking can help people relax and get rid of stress. Due to the nicotine in cigarettes, it has a calming effect on people who smoke. Moreover, smokers contribute to the economy by paying the huge taxes that come along with cigarettes. Furthermore, nicotine can sometimes be a helpful drug. It can relieve pain and cause cognitive enchantment, which means it betters the thinking process. It also protects cells from certain degenerative diseases. It can help maintain your connection with reality, which means that untreated psychotic people are more likely to smoke than non-psychotic people. Also, smoking has a tendency to be an appetite suppressant, which can cause smokers to be generally skinnier. It can help overweight people control their eating habits and diet. Additionally, there is the social aspect to smoking to consider. People who smoke feel that they can get along much more easily due to their shared preference of smoking. Like with most things, smoking does have its good points along with its bad ones.
People have various reasons for their choices regarding smoking. For some, seeing one their loved ones dying from lung cancer due to smoking was enough of an incentive for them to not smoke. Others choose not to smoke due to the vast advertising against smoking. Today, we can observe a lot of anti-smoking ads in television and in other areas which discourage against smoking. Most choose not to smoke because they are aware of how addicting and harmful smoking is. Also, some see smoking as a slow suicide. Other people choose not to smoke simply because they were raised like that. Similarly, people who were raised in a smoking household choose to smoke because to that. Some people choose to smoke due to peer pressure. They see that their friends and peers are smoking and are convinced to at least try a cigarette, which causes the start of an addiction. Others do it for social rewards. As stated before, smokers feel that they can get along easier due to their shared preference. They can easily start a conversation by asking each other for a cigar or a lighter. Another reason is that some people might be genetically predisposed towards smoking, which makes it harder to resist the habit. Some people simply do it because they think it is cool, while others do it because of the risk associated with it. They do it due to thrill that comes along with breaking rules and going against their guardians’ wishes. Others smoke due to it being an appetite suppressant. They do it in an effort to control their weight and continue to smoke even after they reach their desired weight. Another big factor that contributes to why people smoke is stress relief. As stated before, the nicotine in cigarettes has a calming effect which fights stress. Many also believe that smoking helps them work and increases their creativity. Even when their stressful time has passed, it is not easy to let the habit go once it started due to the addictive nature of smoking. The comforting feeling of a cigar in your hands, the casual way of lighting a cigar— many people simply are not willing to give that up, even when they are aware of the dangers of cigars. Also, some people simply flat-out do not care or believe all of the anti-smoking propaganda. They argue that they have a right to do what they want.
There are factors which can counter the effects of smoking and affect my decision. For example, although smoking does help get rid of stress, smoking too much can cause people to rely on it for even the smallest things. Also nicotine simultaneously both calms and speeds up your heart rate, which is not good. Not all of the effects of nicotine are helpful. Additionally, there are also better ways to control your weight than to just rely on smoking. It was stated that smoking was one of the reasons for lung cancer, but that does not mean that anyone who smokes will get lung cancer or that everyone with lung cancer is a smoker. Moreover, the issue of second hand smoke can be easily avoided if people go smoking in a secluded area, like in the privacy of their own home or in their own car. Furthermore, the pollution caused by cars and other vehicles when burning fuel is way more air pollution than smoking. Additionally, the littering of cigarettes can be avoided if people followed the rules and disposed of their cigarettes in proper bins instead of the street. This will also decrease the risk of fire. Also, discoloration of the hands can be avoided by using filter tip cigarettes. In addition to that, most of the world’s population has slightly yellowed teeth, so whether or not you have yellow teeth does not really matter. Besides, it is quite discriminative to judge someone based on their appearance. Plus, bad breath can easily be avoided by brushing your teeth often. Furthermore, danger to babies during pregnancy can be avoided by mothers avoiding smoking during that time. Moreover, some people compare smoking to other addictive things, like coffee. Coffee is also bad for your health and addictive, like smoking. They argue that if you believe in not smoking, you should also believe in not drinking coffee due to their similarity. Needless to say, most people are not willing to give up their coffee. However, the harmful effects of coffee can go away with time, but the harmful effects of smoking are much more long-lasting. As for people seeing smoking as a slow suicide, a lot of things in large quantities can be considered a slow suicide. For example, if you have too much coffee, sugar, or salt, it is also very harmful to your health and can cause your death. The main cause for concern about smoking is all the diseases caused by smoking. Even though most of the other bad side effects can be countered, this cannot. If it could, most of the dangers associated with smoking would fade away and smoking would be considered much safer. All these factors come together to affect my decision on whether the decision on whether the dangers of smoking outweigh the benefits. After investigating why people choose to smoke despite the dangers, I have reached my conclusion. In the end, whether a person smokes or not is their choice, not mine. Even if people come up with a dozen anti-smoking laws, if someone really wants to smoke, they will find a way. I believe that it is not so horrible that it should be completely forbidden. Nevertheless, I do believe that smoking should be forbidden to minors, because at that age, they are not mature enough to make own choice. For myself, however, I choose to never smoke. That is because, for me, I care too much about my own health to endanger it even a little by smoking. To me, the danger smoking presents to my health outweighs the benefits.

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