Stop Smoking or Stop Breathing

For many years, people have suffered an addiction to smoking. Smoking has become a popular drug choice for teens and young adults. By smoking, teens feel “cool” and welcomed by their groups of friends. Although this drug may give you friends, it may also give you unwanted diseases. Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than five million deaths per year. With this amount of people affected, smoking should be a main focus by many. Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. This obsession has affected strangers, friends and neighbors in our communities. Although cigarette usage has decreased dramatically, this issue is still impacting many lives.

           In the past ten years, research has increased to study the effects of tobacco usage. These studies aim to raise awareness of the dangers smoking can cause. One major contribution to the developments of these studies is the nonsmoking organization Truth. This organization has paired with the popular teen network MTV in hopes of minimizing the amount of non-smokers across the nation. By creating ads that relate to teens and young adults, they have created a conversation throughout the U.S. on how to end smoking. Rather than shaming smokers, Truth focuses more on finding ways to end smoking indefinitely. Since 1998, Truth has conducted research and studies to raise awareness of the dangers smoking brings. According to Truth, only nine percent of teens still smoke today. This number has dramatically decreased since the invention of cigarettes in 1895. Through print, web, and commercial ads, Truth and MTV have shared this fact along with others to inform the public of the risks smoking involves. You can follow Truth’s progress on their website, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. This action based company has greatly impacted tobacco sales and will continue to spread information about cigarette usage.

           While smoking cigarettes has been proven to be dangerous, the toxins released into the air can also be hazardous to the people surrounding the smoker. This toxin can also be referred to as second hand smoke. Although this type of smoke is not as dangerous as smoking itself, it can

still cause many harmful diseases and problems to the body. Second hand smoke is a serious health problem and has caused close to 50,000 deaths per year. This type of smoke exposure can cause serious health problems and even premature death to children and adults who do not smoke. Second hand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic and can pollute the smokers nearby environment. Since this issue is so dangerous, smokers should beware of the places in which they choose to smoke. While smoking the danger not only lies with the person consuming the smoke, but the people in the surrounding environment. Smokers should be more aware of this when choosing places to smoke.

           As a daughter of a parent who smokes, I feel that smoking is selfish. You are putting your life, and the lives of others at risk because of your habit. This habit can be detrimental to you and your family. If a smoker was to be diagnosed with a smoking related disease, their entire family will suffer. I constantly think of the things my parent might not get to do with me or experience if their life was cut short due to smoking. This addiction affects more people than just the smoker and should be treated as a drug addiction. Although a smoker can quit, it takes support and encouragement from friends and family. With the help of others, I believe each smoker can quit and eliminate the danger they are putting into their body.

           Truth and other anti-tobacco companies have taken major strides to eliminate smoking. With knowledge and support, I believe we can permanently end smoking. These companies have given us the knowledge and tools to extinguish smoking throughout the nation. The conversation has begun on how to minimize smoking and I believe our generation can eliminate it for good.