Causes and Consequences of Smoking - Assignment Example

Smoking: causes and consequences Discovery plan Part Introduction The topic under consideration is smoking. Themain goal is to find the main causes of smoking. Everybody knows that smoking is very harmful for our health, but many people still have this bad habit and do not hurry to get rid of it. The important questions to answer are why people smoke, why they are not afraid of dangerous diseases caused by smoking, what arguments they have to justify themselves. The main cause of smoking is the lack of understanding that it really leads to death. People simply do not think about the consequences and do not believe that cigarettes can kill. If people realized the consequences of smoking they would not become smokers and it would be easier for them to quit. Thesis: The paper will prove that the main reason of smoking is the lack of realizing its consequences. Part 2. Argument a. In order to prove that smoking can lead to death, it is important to analyze what harm smoking can really bring to our health. Already at the age of thirty smokers risk to have heart attacks. That happens due to arteries hardening smoking contributes to. According to the statistics as much as 20% of death cases from heart attacks in the US happened due to smoking habit. Smoking appears to be the reason of death of very young people. Smokers become younger and then die earlier. b. Smoking is very dangerous for our lungs. Those who smoke are in risk to get flu or pneumonia. Every year more than 15.000 people in the US die from lung cancer and many of them are smokers with long record. Many people who suffer from asthma die because they can’t get rid of the bad habit, notwithstanding that they know very well that the next cigarette may be the last in their life (Eysenck, 1965). c. Children also suffer from smoking, even if they do not smoke. Very often they become victims of secondhand smoking that provoke many dangerous illnesses. If parents smoke, children very often suffer from asthma and bronchitis (Parrott, 1999). It should be mentioned that many children start smoking following their parents’ bad example. All the people want their children not to smoke but they do not think that the first important step is to quit smoking themselves. If children watch their parents smoking, he/she get used to such a picture and may think that if a mother or a father smokes, than it is not so dangerous. If it were dangerous, they would not do it. Thus, smoking is considered as a forbidden fruit that is sweet and its danger is not considered at all. Children very often can’t understand why their mother smokes and they should not. They treat it as injustice in relation to them. A person can’t make somebody believe in the harm of smoking if he smokes himself. Only non-smokers can do it as they can say: I do not smoke because it is dangerous, thus you also should not do that. Smokers can’t say so. Part 3. Counterargument Notwithstanding that the harm of smoking is proved many people do not believe in it. They argue that the diseases, which are supposedly caused by smoking, are also met with people, who do not smoke at all (Thun MJ, Hannan LM, Adams-Campbell LL, Boffetta P, Buring JE et al, 2008). Smokers say so because they want to get some pleasure from smoking, so they think out different excuses. In this case, it is possible to say that they lack knowledge and information. Counterargument supporters should just look into the statistics. Statistics proves that the cases of dangerous diseases such as pneumonia, asthma, heart illnesses and so on are more frequently met with those who smoke. Here it is also important to remember that God helps those who help themselves. If we smoke, we risk and our health is in danger. If we do not smoke, we may not worry about consequences of smoking. Part 4. Conclusion In order to stop smoking, it is necessary to find out why people smoke. The conclusion can be made that people smoke because they do not fully understand the harm of smoking. Very often we can see a person holding a cigarette and at the same time discussing its harm, but still smoking. Even those who suffer from asthma can’t or do not want to stop smoking. Surely, we should take into account the influence of habit that is very sticking as many people want to quit smoking but they say that they can’t do that. However, this fact can be disproved as even fear of death can’t make them stop. No matter how sticking a habit may be but the fear of death is stronger. Thus we can make a conclusion that people simply do not believe that smoking leads to death. They do not want to quit as they get a pleasure from smoking. They do not have any desire to quit, that is why it seems impossible to quit for them. Smokers will exist even if smoking is banned. It is not possible to make all the people stop smoking but it is possible to decrease the number of those who suffer from this bad habit. Further research is needed to find the best ways to do that, but for now in order to decrease the number of smokers, it is important to investigate the cases of bad consequences of smoking habit and make people get to know about them. It is easier to prevent people from becoming smokers than to try to convince those who are already hard smokers that this habit is dangerous. Such preventive measures should be taken already in the early childhood to prevent children from becoming smokers. Those people who state that smoking is not so dangerous as they say, should remember that though sometimes smoking may not have fatal consequences but it does not have any benefits. Some joke that our life is too short to spend it for the healthy way of life, but it is the healthy way of life that can make our life longer. Works Cited Parrott, Andy C. Does cigarette smoking cause stress? American Psychologist, Parrott AC, American Psychologist 54 (10), 1999: 817–820 Eysenck, H. J. Smoking, health and personality. New York: Basic Books, 1965 Thun MJ, Hannan LM, Adams-Campbell LL, Boffetta P, Buring JE et al. "Lung cancer occurrence in never-smokers: An analysis of 13 cohorts and 22 cancer registry studies". PLoS Med 5 (9): e185. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050185, 2008 Read More