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 plays a great roll at this stage. The age and the lack of knowledge, is a perfect combination to mimic what they see in their surroundings.
Nicotine contains a psychoactive substance affecting the chemistry of the brain and nervous system creating dependence. Nicotine reinforces and strengthens the desire to smoke and causes users to keep smoking.When one gives up the drug, one may experience physiological and psychological distress. This is what makes a smoking habit hard to break.
The effects of smoking are significantly high and drastic. One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur at middle age. Tobacco smoke contributes to a number of diseases like, cancer, heart attacks, strokes, bronchitis, emphysema and lung cancer, among others.
It is a slow way to die. The damage of smoking effects on the body often causes years of suffering.Emphysema for example is an illness that gradually rots your lungs causing to get bronchitis again and again. Smoking also causes for blood flow to slow down, as results some smokers end up having their limbs amputated. We know that smoking brings a great amount of risk as we mentioned earlier. Not only affects the smoker but the people around the smoker.
Second hand smoke occurs when the exhaled and ambient smoke from one person’s cigarette is inhaled by other people. This puts the non-smoker at greater risk for many of the health problems associated with direct smoking.Non-smokers are at risk of death from heart attack and stroke. Second hand smoke is especially risky for children and babies.
The risks are low birth weight, sudden infant death syndrome, bronchitis, pneumonia, and middle ear infections. I am now thirty two years of age, and I do not smoke. Fortunately after the first time I tried my first cigarette at age fifteen, I realize how foolish it was. I believe we need to educate more society about the risk of smoking. Unfortunately the consequences of smoking do not forgive ignorance.
