School

A Dangerous Habit-Rough Draft
Creatures walk among us and inhabit our homes, cities, and country sides. They walk, work, and live among us. They release and inhale toxins into our atmosphere, into our people, and into our environment. Their lungs turn black and stale with age and use. They scatter fumes in circles and litter their ashes and dropping as if rats. They pollute our land, air, and ocean along with the life contained. Many act “cool” and participate in law breaking crimes. Some even follow others and are often seduced under peer pressure. Some are lucky enough to stop this continuous cycle and quit in such activities. These creatures are considered vile and unwanted. These creatures are smokers.
Smokers are all around us. Smoking is a bad habit which has many potential factors, consequences, and conditions. This common tradition has been passed on through history up to today with a total of 1.1 billion smokers in the world today (over 1/6 of the entire human population). From ancient times, to early American settlement, to today, people have accepted this bad habit and society has encouraged this behavior whether smoking is used as stress-reliever or a social key. Even though scientists and researchers have found that smoking is health concerning and harmful, today many people still smoke. Encouragement to smoke comes from advertising, un-realistic media shows, and the threatening peer pressure from friends. Surveyors have found that young teens are picking up smoking at an alarming rate of 3,000 a day in the U.S., and 80,000 to 100,000 a day worldwide.
Some may say smoking is a strategy for coping with other sources of stress. But in fact it only creates stress. Smoking only creates problems for the individual as they become seduced from stress and reality. Smoking is dangerous and has a high potential for death. Every eight seconds, a human life is lost to tobacco use somewhere in the world. That translates to approximately 5 million deaths annually. Smoking is a serious matter and increases the risk of coronary heart cancer, stroke, lung cancer in both men and women, chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) and cardiovascular disease. Smoking has been known to decrease your lifetime by 10 or more years, and that the habit can cost a smoker thousands of dollars a year. Smoking affects the individual in many ways such as economically, socially, and physically.
How does smoking have an impact on society, the community, and the environment? It affects everyone and has a dangerous impact on society as a whole. Society is affected by pollution, second-hand smoke, and social issues. Pollution plays a big role as more people smoke. Litter affects the environment and can cause internal issues in nature. While they may look like white cotton, cigarette filters are made of very thin fibers of a plastic called cellulose acetate. A cigarette filter can take between 18 months and 10 years to decompose. Another factor, smoke, combines with water vapor to create acid rain which damages water and plant ecologies. This combination creates a powerful environment danger. Second-hand smoke is also a major issue of smoking. If you spend eight hours a day with a smoker, your chances of developing lung cancer increase by 20 to 40 percent. Second-hand smoke affects other people and creates health problems. Passive smoking causes lung cancer and is linked to cot death, glue ear and asthma in children. Social issues are prominent in a smoking society such as peer pressure, behavioral changes, and addiction. Addictives such as nicotine and other additives, cause the person to be awarded when smoking therefore enforcing negative behavior and reinforcing the desire for a cigarette. In general, smoking creates issues and problems in a society.
Smoking is dangerous for a community, the individual, and the environment. It creates economic, social, and physical problems within a society and only causes stress. An action must be made against smoking and it has to start now…not after another cigarette.