- Health: Wisdom: Respect
As we continue to struggle and live in our world, we may, most likely, have been touched by corruption somewhere or sometime in our lives. One profound example is racism, which, although many people have tried to stamp it out, is still prevalent in society today, and continues to leave a hideous scar in our functional world. But some unbiased things also damage our world. To many, that virus takes the form of drugs. More specifically, cigarettes harm any who cross its path, male or female, old or young, Black or White. It is one of the most unbiased impairments to us...and also one of the most dangerous. Why? Because it's practice not only harms it's user, but also those around the smoker with similar effects. Simply put, it leads to destruction, is ill advised, and can, paradoxically, lead some individuals to become outcasts of society's norms.
The harmful effects of cigarette smoking have constantly been asserted for as long as I could remember. To many teenagers and adults alike, it has, because of constant uttering, become nothing more than a bag of wind. But those very effects cannot be ignored, for they are like time: unavoidable, draining the lives of their victims without compassion. Though smokers continue to disregard the health hazards caused by cigarette smoking, many do not realize just how severe and crucial those effects are. In fact, cigarette smoking affects smoker's entire bodies...negatively. From the head down, research from countless organizations (as well as from the United States Surgeon General) has proven that cigarette smoking is physiologically dangerous. For example, the carbon monoxide present in cigarettes prevents an appropriate amount of oxygen from reaching the brain tissues. In effect, activities in smoker's brains slow down. To smokers, this mental dullness is called relaxation, a lack of control over their circumstances, leaving them vulnerable and mentally incapacitated. Another poison present in cigarettes is HCN (hydrogen cyanide), used in World War II by the Nazis to gas thousands of prisoners in concentration camps to death. A very effective tool...used to cause death. Moving down the body, research has also shown that smoking can most likely cause cancer in the lip and mouth, then down to the larynx (voice box) and throat. In effect, smokers risk potential wrinkles at an earlier age as well as a distinct loss of voice or cough, caused by a blockage of the throat by the tar in cigarette smoke. It's called "smoker's cough". But, if an individual who has "smoker's cough" continues to smoke, it will develop into "smoker's hark", and later into chronic bronchitis. The surprising fact is, this process only needs one year to be activated, even in young people. Now, the more serious illnesses can occur in the mid-body, particularly the lungs. Lung cancer is a serious problem in contemporary society. Why? Because its frequency is increasing rapidly, and it is possibly the most deadly cancer that we know of today. Another disease that can occur in the lungs in emphysema, caused by long-term bronchitis. However, unlike bronchitis, it cannot be cured. The only way to avoid it is through quitting smoking before it develops. These few examples of the dangers of cigarette smoking are frightening...but sadly true.
Considering detriments of smoking, is smoking a wise choice? Possibly, if one continues to try to convince himself that he's going to die anyway, might as well have fun while he can. But my question is, just how long are you willing to sacrifice the bountiful other pleasures and pastimes of life for the sake of a lethal drug? More importantly, you could be destroying your dreams for smoking. That does sound drastic, but the effects of cigarette smoking are not far off the mark from that situation. How, you ask? Well, one reason is that not only is smoking a danger to your physiological health, but also to your economic health. Cigarette costs are elevating, costing mere cents in Mark Twain's time to several dollars today, even considering the different monetary values between the two time periods. Why? Because the tobacco industry is a multibillion dollar franchise. And it's getting more demanding. The decision to spend money on things that are not worth the cost, both physiologically and psychologically, is entirely up to you. All I want to say is that it's not a very wise choice.
Why do smokers smoke in the first place? To many teenage smokers, and to many adults who think back to their teenage years when they began smoking, it was to join cliques. But consider this: ever since the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service issued his report denouncing cigarette smoking, decades ago, millions of adults have quit, per capita consumption has fallen, but more importantly, there has been an increased public awareness of the harms of cigarettes. With the decreasing number of smokers, who can say that smoking is the way to join different groups? Moreover, the individual who decides to take up smoking to "fit in" is giving up individuality by conforming to the mores of a small society. Since less people are smoking as times passes, will that majority of people continue to respect those who have failed to overcome the temptations of cigarette smoking? Or will they find those smokers too psychologically "weak"?
This message may most likely have been shunned as too cliche, but it can also be seen as a cold dose of reality. Though teenagers may scorn it, they will learn, eventually, the importance of it, as well as just how crucial it is. In fact, that's why we have adults who, by smoking, seem hypocritical by encouraging their son(s)/daughter(s) not to smoke. It's because they don't want us to fail as they've done, to make the wrong choice, after years of bitterness and the realization that it's just not worth the price to smoke. The choice lies entirely within our reach, to do, as we like with it. To say that it is not is sad and untrue. But that choice should not be taken without knowledge of the consequences, lest we should regret it forever. We should also think about those who we may hurt along the way, those who may be affected by the clouds of poison that we may breathe out, because there is essentially no difference between inhaling one's own smoke and someone else's smoke except that one's own smoke is more concentrated. After all...it is the right of non-smokers to breathe clean, fresh air.
