As time passes, do you think the health of people is going to get better or worse? I personally think, we may have all that high tech medicine or whatever, but it also depends on the choices you make. (I’m talking about smoking in this essay, but there are other bad decisions people make.) Even as a teen. Smoking just ONCE can raise the risk of heart attack or a stroke. But, you can’t stop! It’s horrible for everyone. Also, if that isn’t bad enough, smoking pollutes our air. It’s sometimes difficult to go to the city and breathe fresh air. That’s NOT how it should be.
I see lots of people smoking on the streets, in their cars, in their houses, (ect.) Now, imagine walking down the street and you see a person, smoking. They look in dreadful shape. You wish you could help them because they look so hopeless, so you decide to ask them why they are smoking. Their breath smells of smoke. They answer, “I wish I could quit. But, it’s extremely addicting, I can’t stop. I know I look HORRIBLE and in bad shape, and I am. I can’t stop. As much as I want to, I CAN’T STOP!” You decide to walk away from the person. They angrily puff smoke out of their cigarette.
You keep walking and you see a group of teens, smoking. There are 4 of them. 3 look as if they are enjoying themselves. But, the last one is coughing and looks in pain. The other 3 totally ignore her. You want to keep walking, but she looks in so much pain. Therefore, as the caring person you are, you ask, “You should quit smoking. Don’t you know how… well… just downright horrid you look? No offence.” You say. She says, “The only reason those guys,” she gestures to the others, “Hang out with me is because I smoke… and, why do you care?!?”
Did you imagine that? Pretty horrible, right? The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says, “Each day in the United States, more than 3,200 youth aged 18 years or younger smoke their first cigarette, and an additional 2,100 youth and young adults become daily cigarette smokers.” They also mention, “Nearly 9 out of 10 cigarette smokers first tried smoking by the age 18 years or younger, and 98% first tried smoking by the age of 26.” That’s TERRIBLE. Making good decisions are KEY to YOUR life. Imagine one more thing for me. You promise yourself to never smoke no matter how hard the peer pressure gets. I hope you can truly promise yourself that.
People cough and wheeze while they smoke. They already look bad on the outside, imagine how their lungs look. If you start smoking (hopefully you won’t), you may think, ‘Oh, I won’t get hurt. What harm can a little smoking do?’ The answer? Let me tell you. Smoking destroys almost every part of your body. It harms the brain because the nicotine changes your brain. “The brain develops extra nicotine receptors to accommodate the large doses of nicotine from tobacco. When the brain stops getting the nicotine it’s used to, the result is nicotine withdrawal. You may feel anxious, irritable, and have strong cravings for nicotine.” says smokefree.gov. It also harms your ears, eyes, mouth, face. You’re probably wondering, ‘My eyes? How could it harm my eyes?’ The way smoking harms your eyes is smoking raises the risk of developing cataracts and macular degeneration. Both of the things can lead to blindness. In addition, you can get gum disease from smoking. And your heart gets very harmed when you smoke. Smoking can make your blood thick and sticky. When your blood is stickier, it’s harder for your heart to work. As time passes, the sticky blood damages the fragile lining of your blood vessels. That harm raises the risk of you getting a heart attack or stroke. So, if you ever (hopefully never) start smoking, consider the harm you’re doing to yourself.
I have talked ranted a lot about the harm smoking can do to you. But, it ALSO harms the (maybe) innocent people around you. I was in Paris during the summer, and if you didn’t know, lots of people smoke in Paris. Our waiters took a break just to smoke (and to rest… but they also smoke.). I’m not saying I don’t love Paris, I do! But, by the end of our trip, I could feel my eyes watering. My eyes were itchy. I didn’t feel good and the air looked disgusting.
Everytime I walked down the streets of Paris or SF, I see cigarettes or someone smoking. I always have the urge to cover my nose as I passed. But, I don’t because it’s rude. Ultimately, I hold my breath. And the harm to non-smokers who happen to breathe in the smoke from a cigarette butt or a smoker’s’ breath is really severe. There are more than 7,300 lung cancer deaths of non-smokers per year because of smokers! Even a little bit of breathing of smoke can damage your cells. And that little bit of smoke can also raise the risk of cancer. Those non-smokers were innocent (at least in not smoking.). And BABIES! They haven’t learned to cover their nose. Imagine a BABY breathing smoke. And if kids’ parents smoke(d), it raises the risk of many health issues, for example, asthma attacks that can risk the kid’s LIFE. The kid wheezes and coughs more, and the kid can get ear infections. It’s not a good thing, but yet it’s true!
Circling back to the Paris topic, pretty much every block in Paris had at least one person smoking. It was really hard to breathe fresh air there. But, Paris is beautiful and I loved it. However, that’s not my point. My point is that smoking harms everyone and our environment. I’m NOT FORCING you to NOT smoke, it’s YOUR health choices. It’s your choice if you want to smoke. Just remember the harm you’re doing to yourself, our environment, and the people around you.
Now, imagine your IDEAL future world. I don’t know about you, but I’d at least imagine clear, fresh air. That you can breathe in without coughing. Hopefully, this essay helped you be more conscious of smoking. With a perspective, I’m Vida.
Sources: Smokefree.gov, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.