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Persuasive Essay On Smoking

Decent Essays

Smoking tobacco is known for being detrimental to a person's health. When you smoke a cigarette you are inhaling a toxic mix of chemicals including formaldehyde, ammonia, arsenic and cyanide. Along with the inhaling of carcinogenic chemicals smokers also deal with nicotine addiction. Nicotine is highly addictive and makes quitting very difficult for those who smoke. Many smokers continue to smoke knowing the harmful effects but, even worse, some people willingly smoke while they are pregnant. Women who smoke during pregnancy create a very unhealthy environment for themselves and their unborn child. Pregnant women who smoke should stop immediately to ensure the health of their child. Smoking while pregnant can lead to serious health effects such as premature birth, birth defects and death. In the womb babies are extremely vulnerable to chemicals. The CDC states that “babies have immature porous blood-brain barriers that allow greater chemical vulnerability to the developing brain.” Babies also have far less chemical bonding proteins than that of an adult allowing chemicals to reach organs easier. Doctors even advise mothers to avoid pumping gas, painting, using hair dye and painting their nails while pregnant do to the chemicals in those products in fear of harming the baby. Women who smoke while pregnant subject their child to over 4,000 different chemicals of which 43 are known to be carcinogenic compounds. This mixture of toxic chemicals is hazardous to both the mother and the child's health. Any mother who cares for her child's health should do whatever it takes to quit smoking in order to birth a healthy baby. Losing a child is a parents worst nightmare. For many parents, it is unpreventable, but, for mothers who lose their child because they smoked during pregnancy it is completely preventable. Smoking while pregnant increases the chances of a miscarriage and death. The Georgia state of public health reviewed death records from infants who died from SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and estimated “20.7% of cases could be prevented if the mother had not smoked during pregnancy.” They also estimated “61.3% of SIDS cases were results of smoking.” The baby center states that “smoking

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