HERE IS PROOF THAT SMOKING IS BAD.According to the CDC report: A call to action, “Tobacco use, particularly cigarette smoking, is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die too young because of smoking-related diseases. Today, nearly one in four U.S. adults and one in three teenagers smoke. Tragically, if current trends continue, an estimated 25 million people (including 5 million of today’s children) will die prematurely of a smoking-related disease.”
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statisti...The website Above the influence reports that, “Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. Between 1964 and 2004, cigarette smoking caused an estimated 12 million deaths, including 4.1 million deaths from cancer, and 5.5 million deaths from cardiovascular diseases. When smoking tobacco, the user inhales tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and 200 known poisons into the lungs. The nicotine in cigarettes is powerfully addictive.”
http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/facts/d...#
WHY THEN DO PEOPLE SMOKE ?People smoke because they can. The reasons vary from the inane to the sublime. Excuses such as: I enjoy the taste or it helps me relax are common, but there are those such as everyone in my family smokes or it’s my constitutional right. I feel the urge and I must fulfill it or I will start to feel sick should be the only real reason a person gives for smoking, because smoking is addictive. According to E Health MD, “A smoking addiction means a person has formed an uncontrollable dependence on cigarettes to the point where stopping smoking would cause severe emotional, mental, or physical reactions.”
They further report that, “Nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. It is absorbed and enters the bloodstream, through the lungs when smoke is inhaled... Nicotine is a psychoactive drug with stimulant effects on the electrical activity of the brain. It also has calming effects, especially at times of stress, as well as effects on hormonal and other systems throughout the body. Although its subjective effects are less dramatic and obvious than those of some other addictive drugs, smoking doses of nicotine causes activation of "pleasure centers" in the brain (for example, the mesolimbic dopamine system), which may explain the pleasure, and addictiveness of smoking.”
http://www.ehealthmd.com/library/smoking... BUT THERE ARE SOCIAL ISSUES AS WELL“So smoking is bad and addictive, we knew that already. We still want to smoke.” This is a very common and well traveled line that is repeated across the country. It is also true. People do still want to smoke despite the health risks. Even after quitting with the help of physicians some former smokers will go back to smoking. The statistics on these are unclear because society doesn’t vie these as new smokers but just smokers. However if you ask a smoker if he has tried to quit he will usually give you a number between one and ten. Smokers do quit, often repeatedly but they return to their bad habit.
Nonsmokers usually don’t care why or they assume it is because of their addiction but there are other mitigating circumstances that if you are not a smoker you might not be privy to. Here are some examples.
1. Routine: We take for granted how important our routines can be to us but take away the morning cup of Java from coffee drinkers and they will tell you just how important that ritual is to them/2. Camaraderie: You try to socially isolate yourself from the group of people who have been your biggest supporters for any length of time. Try it! See what happens.3. Freedom/Equality: This one may seem like a stretch but ask a smoker candidly and they will tell you that few things in life are done outside of necessity. To smoke is to make a calculated risk. It is similar to the choice skydivers make. They take a calculated risk and they will tell you also that they feel free. They get a sense of oneness. This is why smokers feel their civil liberties challenged when nonsmokers protest.
I would like to think that it is not that complex but it is. Smokers connect socially to this vice and it is a painful separation for many to be extracted from these social interactions. Because it is not just the addiction but the social ostracizing that can be just as difficult and lets face it Doctors don’t treat the social stigma of being a nonsmoker. Non smokers are like untouchables. To smokers they are traitors and to nonsmokers they are potential powder kegs. This is a hard way to live which is why so many people return to smoking.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO AS A PEOPLE THEN?This is the part that ironically enough is the easiest of all. We need to act as a people. We should not view each other as smokers or nonsmokers. We should not see each other as us against them. In our society it is currently okay to stereotype or discriminate against smokers. Nonsmokers can say the harshest things to smokers about their condition and their vices under the assumption that, since what they do is unhealthy that it is okay to put them down.
The stigma a smoker bears is in that sense very similar to that of a prostitute. People will look down on sex workers because of the way they make their money without showing the least bit of compassion. It is in these instances that the Christian Principle of, “Love the sinner. Hate the sin” should be put into practice. We should remember that we are not what we do. We do what we do for reasons that may change if we are given an opportunity and showing compassion and empathy for another’s troubles is the best way to open up venues for change to those that are seeking them.
In a similar manner smokers should also be patient with nonsmokers. Try to envision what your life without smoking might be like. Try to be respectful when practicing your habit. This is a choice you made for yourself. It is not fair to drag others into it unwillingly. The important thing to keep in mind is that we all must share a common space and the keyword here is share.
I am Siempre Solo, your voice, we have spoken!
FYI: I’m trying on a new catchphrase. I’m thinking it sounds a bit pretentious unless of course the readers agree with what I wrote. Please tell me your opinion.Thanks for reading!