Exposure To Secondhand Smoke

Tobacco has and still is the most important public health issue faced in Australia and internationally. (Jochelson, 2006). Many countries such as North America, England, Australia, Canada and Ireland have introduced policies regarding smoking in public areas and restriction of smoking in indoor areas. (Thomson, Wilson & Edwards, 2009). The government, community leaders and policy makers work towards introducing policies that will stop consumers from smoking in public areas. (Pizacani, maher, Rohde, Drach & Stark, 2012). Government intervention should extend public smoking bans so that second hand smokers can be safe, a better environment and less death incidents relating to smoking.

Every year, there are over 400,000 smoking-related deaths in the United States. A large percentage of these are due to lung cancer, whose leading cause is smoking. However, not all deaths are smokers themselves. Anyone in the vicinity can fall victim to second hand smoke. These people, through no action of their own, can have their lives threatened.

I am contacting you today in regards to life-threatening concerns that are apparent in my mind as I prevalently witness these actions taking place every day by citizens of our state. Extremely toxic chemicals are consumed during the smoking of cigarettes by people under and of legal age. When one single cigarette is lit, and smoked, more than 6,000 different chemicals are taken into the lungs and released into the environment, which in turn, create a higher risk of lung cancer as well as a range of other diseases, and the smoke is polluting the environment. I am aware of the multiple approaches previously taken to decrease smoking, such as, increased taxation on cigarettes, smoke-free zones, and creating other resorts in place of a cigarette. However, according to John R. Polito, author of the book Freedom from Nicotine, smoking cigarettes is extremely addictive and breaking a cigarette addiction is

One of my first memories in the United States was taking a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) class. I was in sixth grade and a top student, as talking about drugs and alcohol and the way they affect us was fascinating to me. This is why, the following year, I volunteered to become a peer educator in Teens Against Tobacco Use (T.A.T.U). For a couple of years, I gave presentations to young students which included facts, demonstrations, and games, to spread the knowledge that tobacco is harmful and that staying away from smoking prolongs life expectancy and increases the quality of life. It should come as no surprise, then, that I consider myself a big proponent of staying tobacco-free and encouraging others to quit smoking as a great way to promote health. I remember watching my mom and sister as they took part in their nightly ritual of smoking a few cigarettes to unwind. “Did you know that a main component of cigarettes is used as rocket fuel?” I would ask them, as I opened the window and they stared back at me blankly. “We know, we know” was the answer every time. I knew that convincing them to quit was no easy task, but I was committed. Day after day, I proudly stated a new fact about the evils of smoking. Finally one day, they quit. At first, they attributed it to the cost. Since we had just immigrated to the United States, the cost of cigarettes was simply not something they could afford. I didn’t believe it. I proudly

Imagine yourself sitting down to dinner at a restaurant. You are sitting down trying to enjoy your dinner when all you can smell is smoke. Not only are you just breathing in the smoke, it is also damaging your body at the same time. Or imagine yourself at your work place, whether it be a restaurant or office, and you are forced to breathe in second-hand smoke the entire time you are there. In this paper you will be informed of the harmful effects of second-hand smoke, and why smoking should be banned from all public places.

The smoking habit is the principal cause of illness, disability and death around the world. More than five million of people in the world die due to smoking habit every year. If we don’t take care of this in 2030 the amount will be ten million. Seven million of these deaths would be in poor countries.

Federal Restrictions and Guidelines in Smoking and Politics by A. Lee Frischlet and James M. Hoelfer

Tobacco consumption is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the United States. In the United States, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year. That is around one in five deaths annually only because of smoking. On an average, the person who smokes dies ten years earlier than a non-smoker. These statistics are not mere numbers but speak about the gravity of the situation. The United States government should portray a more negative view on Tabaco to save the lives of many people worldwide (Centre for Disease and Prevention, second paragraph).

Tobacco has existed for long as we have known about history, but due to the negative effects of it to the broader community Tobacco has sparked greater controversy across the globe. Many people argue that it is the government’s responsibility to protect the individual but on the contrary some disagree and believe it’s up to the individual. This essay will elaborate above mentioned aspects and lead to a logical conclusion.

Many drugs are used, misused, and abused in American society today. Some of these carry stigma in the general population, forcing users into an underground drug subculture. Others are accepted and almost promoted under certain circumstances. Tobacco is one of those drugs. Tobacco will be discussed in the context of cigarette smoking. This is not to undermine the existence or danger of other forms of tobacco, but instead to have an exhaustive discussion of cigarette smoking and its societal impact. Cigarettes are a means of inhaling tobacco, where it enters the lungs and is absorbed through the blood vessels, traveling to the heart, from which it is finally pumped to the brain (Hogan, Gabrielsen, Luna, and Grothaus 2003:76). Cigarettes are detrimental to society because they not only affect the user who chooses to smoke; they impact people around them through second-hand and residual smoke. The damage done by cigarettes is not impossible to address. Successful prevention measures are already in place, but this paper intends to suggest other more direct measures, especially related to statutory regulations.

Despite the prohibitions placed on tobacco in the eighteen nineties, by the first World War, negativity towards tobacco began to fade. The lack of scientific evidence that smoking was harmful at the beginning of the century, and the war effort increased the demand for cigarettes. People only suspected the addictiveness of Nicotine, but could not prove it. It was not until the mid nineteen fifties that smoking was linked to lung cancer and other illnesses. Also at this time, the Tobacco Institute was created. The Tobacco Institute is a lobby, or organization that seeks to influence lawmakers for their own benefit. Today in the nineties, tobacco is legal but restricted depending on where you go. Tobacco sales are restricted to minors, some places have banned vending machines, most have banned sale and use of tobacco in schools, and even more have prohibited the sale of single cigarettes, or free samples of cigarettes.

Just over a billion people worldwide indulge themselves with a legal substance that has proven too insidiously cause disease or death. Approximately six million people die each year from this legal drug and it is one of the worst threats to humanity worldwide (WHO, 2016). This drug is sold legally over the counter throughout many countries including the United States. The Surgeon General’s Warning, “smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and may complicate pregnancy” was labeled on the packaging of cigarette boxes in the 1980’s. Eventually, launching a national campaign for smoking cessation. Despite the many laws that inhibit the use of tobacco smoke, these products continue to be a legally obtainable substance in the US with devastating damage as a result of their use.

The use of tobacco is a very controversial topic here in the United States. The harmful side effects of tobacco are well known and consequently, many believe that it should be outlawed. Though this has not yet occurred, constant regulations on the industry and

American’s spend a startling $156 Billion dollars every year on tobacco and tobacco related products and an additional $133 Billion dollars on healthcare for diseases that originate from smoking and chewing tobacco. The human toll is also significant with a projected 8 million people to die every year by 2030. To combat these extreme statistics CVS Caremark, now CVS Health, has decided to make the hard business decision to stop selling tobacco products in all 7,700 of its drug stores. The decision stemmed from changing its image from a corner store that fills prescriptions to a health care company that is trying to “reinvent the pharmacy to have a more supportive and active role in health care”. To show support for the idea, petitions have been popping up on Change.com like the one by Michael Brochstein of New York, New York who is calling for other drug store giant Walgreens and its subsidiary Duane Read to follow in CVS’s footsteps and stop selling tobacco products also. Proponents of the idea say that if these giants stop selling tobacco then regular purchasers will have to go elsewhere, making it less convenient and possibly making smokers move in the right direction, to quit smoking and hopefully curve the smoking rate as a whole. This is needed because although smoking has been on the decrease since the early 1990’s, recently getting to a low of 18% percent of white males being smokers, it is still an epidemic that kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents,

The tobacco industry kills more people in North America from Monday to Thursday of each week than the terrorists murdered in total on September 11, 2001. That sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Well, smoking is an epidemic that affects us all, whether you are a smoker or you aren’t. In order to stop this epidemic, we need to