The Negative Effects of Smoking and the Need to Prevent Death from Smoking

Smoking Cessation

Smoking is a critical preventable cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes more than half a million deaths each year in the United States (Mathur et al., 2014). Research shows that smoking causes more deaths alone than HIV, illegal drugs use, firearm related incidents, vehicle accidents, and alcohol use combined. Numerous youths and adolescents have engaged in smoking which has resulted in addiction. Similarly parents who smoke pose health risks to their children unknowingly, which may cause serious health problems. Many American citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than those who have died from other causes. Ninety percent of lung cancer deaths result from smoking. Over the last 50 years, the risk of death from cigarette smoking has increased both in men and in women (Mathur et al., 2014). As such, quitting smoking is a necessary and desirable effort that can loads of health benefits and reduces the risk of other diseases such as cancer.

Smoking is a dangerous habit bearing in mind the underlying health risks that smokers are exposed to. It is an appealing habit, especially among adolescents and young adults whose ignorance does not give them an opportunity to assess the gains and losses from smoking. This is because of addiction, which results from nicotine that is contained in the tobacco smoke (Mathur et al., 2014). Once a person becomes a nicotine addict, it becomes exceedingly difficult for them to stop the smoking habit because their bodies will be in need of more nicotine throughout. Therefore, this makes their systems slaves to tobacco and the negative side of it is that it continuously affects their body organs such as the lungs, and the trachea.

Affected body organs result to dysfunction, which consequently triggers disorders of the respiratory system and even cancer among others. For instance, parents who smoke seldom think about whether tobacco smoke can affect their children in any way (Joseph et al., 2014). The truth is that smoking in the presence of