Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of morbidity (disease and illness) and premature mortality (death) worldwide, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  Smoking related diseases claim an estimated 443,000 American lives each year, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  In recent years, smoking has cost the United States an outrageous amount of money, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  In 2004, smoking cost the United States over $193 billion, which includes $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 million in direct health care expenditures, (General Smoking Facts, 2). 

    Cigarette smoking is very harmful to a person’s body, (General Smoking Facts, 2).    Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  Sixty nine of the chemicals are known to cause cancer, (General Smoking Facts, 2). Cigarettes contain tar, carbon monoxide and chemicals like DDT, arsenic and formaldehyde-a gas that is used to preserve dead animals, (Smoking, 1). The tar and carbon monoxide in cigarettes can cause serious breathing problems, (Smoking, 1).  The tobacco in cigarettes contains nicotine which is a drug that makes smoking addictive, (Smoking, 1).  The longer that an individual smokes, then the more cigarettes the individual smokes, and then the harder it is to quit, (Smoking, 1).

 Smoking causes 90 percent of lung cancer deaths and 80-90 percent of COPD deaths, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  Around 8.6 million people in the U.S. have at least one serious illness caused by smoking, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  Diseases caused by smoking include:  chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, abdominal aortic aneurysm, acute myeloid leukemia, cataract, pneumonia, periodontitis, and bladder, esophageal, laryngeal, lung, oral, throat, cervical, kidney, stomach, and pancreatic cancers, (Tobacco Facts, 1).   Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women are from smoking, (Tobacco Facts, 1)   Smoking also can cause many other conditions that were not mentioned above, (General Smoking Facts, 2).  People who smoke are six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than nonsmokers, (Tobacco Facts, 1). 

Many people in the United States are smokers, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that more than 46 million US adults were current smokers in 2009, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  This means that 20.6% of all adults smoke which is 1 out of 5 people, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  23.5% of all men smoke and 17.9% of all women smoke, (General Smoking Facts, 1).   Smoking prevalence is highest among non-Hispanic whites (22.2%) and lowest among Hispanics (14.5%) and Asians (12.0%), General Smoking Facts, 1).  High school students and middle school students are also smoking, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  Across the nation, 20% of high school students were smoking cigarettes in 2009, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  A survey that was conducted in 2009 of middle school students showed that around 5% of them were smoking, (General Smoking Facts, 1). 

Individuals, who smoke while they are pregnant, can cause serious harm to their unborn child, (General Smoking Facts, 1). Smoking during pregnancy accounts for around 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  Smoking during pregnancy also accounts for up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries and up to 10 percent of all infant deaths, (General Smoking Facts, 1).  Even the babies that appear to be healthy when they are born and are full term have been found to be born with narrowed airways and reduced lung function, (General Smoking Facts, 1). 

It is never too late to quit smoking and there are many reasons why individual’s should quit smoking, (Smoking, 1).  Some reasons to quit smoking include:  Expensive, bad breath, stained teeth and hands, cough/sore throat, problems breathing, feeling tired and out of breath, wrinkles sooner and before the average person, arguments with parents and friend, cancer risk, heart disease risk, gum diseases risk, many other health problems, bad smell in your clothes, hair and skin, cigarette burns in your car or on your clothes, and the risk of secondhand smoke to people around you, (Smoking, 1).  There are many other things that people can do instead of smoking, which include:  Chew sugarless gum, call a friend, chew sunflower seeds, go to a movie or another place where you cannot smoke, take a walk or work out, remind yourself why you want to quit, etc, (Smoking, 1). 

There are steps that individuals can take to make quitting easier, which include:  Pick a stop date, make a list of the reasons why you want to quit, keep track of where, when and why you smoke, throw away all of your tobacco, tell your friends that you’re quitting, and when your stop date arrives, stop, (Smoking, 1).  When picking a stop date, choose a date that is two to four weeks from today so that you can get ready to quit, (Smoking, 1).  When keeping track of where, when and why you smoke, you might want to make notes so that you know the activities or the people that you are around when you smoke and write down things you plan to do instead of smoking, (Smoking, 1).  When your stop date arrives, plan little rewards for yourself for each cigarette-free day, week or month, (Smoking, 1). 

References
"General Smoking Facts." American Lung Association. 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2011. .
"Smoking." American Academy of Family Physicians, 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2011. .
"Tobacco Facts." CDC. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, 22 June 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2011. .