Question

An essay about children fighting against tobacco

Answer 1

About 23 percent of all adults are smokers. This fact seems dwarfed when you hear that 30 percent of adolescents use some sort of tobacco. In fact, statistics show that the average age for first using tobacco is 13. This means that the majority of all tobacco users started when they were a teenager. The effects of smoking are common and dangerous but what most people don't realize, secondhand and thirdhand smoking is just as bad. Authority figures need to set up limitations for tobacco use and combat young age smoking.

Cigarette smoke contains around 4,800 chemicals, 69 of those can cause cancer. The effects of using tobacco are wide and varied but all of them are dangerous to every user's health. A study done by the American Lung Association states that smokers die significantly earlier than non-smokers. Smoking men and women have an average of 14 years of less life than a person who doesn't use tobacco. Human beings are supposed to do all they can to extend their lives. Yet people still make the choice to use tobacco and other abusive substances. A few dangerous diseases one could get by using tobacco include: coronary heart disease, lung, oral, throat, kidney, and pancreatic cancer, and even COPD. The list goes on and on and most of them can leave a person scared for life. Smoking is unacceptable in general, but doing it while pregnant is even worse. Just under eleven percent of all pregnant women smoke. Using tobacco while pregnant accounts for ten percent of all infant deaths. Smoking is obviously terrible. All of these facts plainly support that simple statement.

If one person smokes, the whole building smokes! Whether that statement describes a house, a place of work, or an apartment building, smoking affects everyone in the near vicinity. The more prominent example of the three would be an apartment building. What would happen if a tobacco user decided to smoke in a building full of families and young children? The smoke that is released from the cigarette has the possibility of infiltrating the homes where young children are playing. Secondhand smoke is not something to joke about. It's just as bad, if not worse than directly inhaling tobacco on a regular basis. Secondhand smoke occurs when one person exhales a smoke cloud and that cloud makes its way to another person. That other person could be baby sleeping in the apartment next door, a teenager doing homework the floor directly above the smoker, or even an elderly lady knitting in her room across the hall. It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Thirdhand smoke occurs when the actual smoke permeates a person's clothes and anyone who takes a sniff, inhales particles of tobacco. This is a much more widespread problem than secondhand smoke because one person can carry the scent of smoke wherever he or she goes. In the elevator, through a hallway, in the lobby, the possibilities of meeting someone who smokes are endless and that increases the chance of inhaling tobacco. Only the actual smoker has the power to stop second and thirdhand smoke. They have to take the initiative to not harm other people and quit bringing dangerous tobacco to innocent humans.

Certain places are making it illegal to smoke around other people. The Grand Island City code prohibits smoking in public places. Why not outlaw all smoking except for certain designated places. This would limit the amount of exposure nonsmoking individuals receive. It would allow families to safely take a walk through a park without encountering any disease filled smoke clouds. California was the first state to try and achieve this by initiating a statewide ban. Following California's lead other states started to join in. On June 1,2009, Nebraska's Clean Indoor Air Pact went into effect. This banned all smoking in bars, restaurants and all enclosed workplaces. This is a great start and hopefully Nebraska bumps it up a notch and initiates more laws and bills that effectively stops second and thirdhand smoke altogether.

The effects of smoking are widespread and can be deadly. The issues one could get by using tobacco should turn anyone away from the idea. Yet, it still happens. Youth still have a high probability of trying some sort of tobacco use and when they live in an environment where secondhand smoke is constant, it makes it that much worse. Like stated above, an apartment building would be the perfect example for showing the dangers of second and thirdhand smoke. If one person smokes, the whole building smokes. This phrase clearly states that when one persons decides to give in to the addiction known as cigarettes, the whole building and the surrounding area are affected to.