Habit, harmful, horrible! These are some of the traits of the silent killer, Cigarettes. It’s all over the news. These tiny little cancer sticks are harming and killing people everywhere. Without notice the deadly smoke can fill your lungs and do damage even if your not the one smoking. Everyone knows that it’s a problem and that’s why smoking should be banned. One reason it should be banned is that it causes sickness and death. Another reason it should be banned is because it increases health care costs for all, whether you smoke or don’t. To add on, it is the most littered item in the world and pollutes the air. The final and most important one is that second hand smoking effects your friends, family and the people around you. Whether you smoke five cigarettes a day or fifty, there is no doubt that smoking is extremely bad for you and will seriously affect your body and health in some way.

Smoking causes sickness and death. Smoking cigarettes can harm almost every organ in your body, from top to bottom and inside and out. Moreover, it is only now that doctors are beginning to discover the true extent of the harm that smoking can cause to a person's health and to the health of those around them. People all over the world are getting chronic and deadly diseases that are all originating from smoking. Some of these disease are Mouth Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease ,Respiratory Infections, Respiratory Diseases, Lung Cancer, Stomach Cancer, Liver Cancer, and so many more. It puts people in harm. Smokers know this but yet they still smoke anyway. Although smoking is a great stress reliever for some people they should try other things like yoga or meditation, they work just as good and they don’t jeopardize your health. Smoking also causes death all over the world. More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. On average, adults who smoke cigarettes die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers. It also kills an average of 443,000 people a year, that’s about 1,230 people everyday. Imagine if one of your family members died because of smoking, then you would experience the feeling that all of those many other families had and have to deal with every day.


Another reason is that health care costs from smoking related diseases are out of control. Cigarette smoking costs more than $193 billion annually. This includes $97 billion in lost productivity from people that get sick from smoking and can’t work. An employee who smokes costs the employer 18% more than a nonsmoker. It also includes $96 billion in direct health care expenditures which comes from people who get sick from smoking that don’t have health care. It costs us money even if we choose not to smoke. Why should the healthy be penalized for the wrong doings of others?

To add on, not only is smoking bad for you but it’s bad for the environment. Cigarettes are the most littered object in the world making up a large population of the worlds pollution. After people are done smoking where do you think the butts are going? I’ll tell you where, right on the ground followed by a foot to stomp on it, making it almost impossible to pick up all of the remains. Cigarette butts and the filters aren't even biodegradable! The filters are made of cellulose acetate and take many years to decompose. Many of the filters end up in waterways, where the toxic chemicals that they are designed to filter out are leached into the water supply. Smoking doesn’t only affect the ground but also the air. Cigarette smoke contains approximately 7,000 chemicals, many of which are known carcinogens (the chemicals that cause cancer). As a cigarette burns, the smoke is released into our air and that is where the chemicals go, into the air we breathe whether we want it or not. Imagine if cigarettes were eliminated, all of this wouldn’t be a problem and a lot of the world pollution would be cut down making this planet a better place to live. We would all be able to take a deep breath and relax.

Finally, second hand smoking effects the people around you. When people smoke around you the smoke gets in the air which you’re breathing in. It enters your lungs the same way as if you were the one first hand smoking. You don't have to be a smoker for smoking to harm you. You can also have health problems from breathing in other people's smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by the smoker. Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 substances that can cause cancer. Health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke include lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease. There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. Children, pregnant women, older people and people with heart or breathing problems should be especially careful. It may seem pretty harmless, but secondhand smoke actually contains thousands of chemicals from arsenic and ammonia to hydrogen cyanide, many of which have been proven to be toxic. High concentrations of many of these chemicals are found in secondhand smoke. The next time you think about smoking or someone around you is, tell them to stop! You are saving their life, your life and the lives of the people around you. Imagine that their are 1,230 deaths a day that can be avoided by just getting rid of one little thing. Personally, I think smoking should be banned because my Aunt is a smoker who wants to stop but is addicted. If cigarettes were banned it would help her break her addiction which would be good for her and everyone else. It’s good for her because it would keep her healthier and for me because when I visit her it won’t put my health in jeopardy by having to breath in her second hand smoke. I would also be good for me because I would have time to spend with her. On average, a smoker’s life expectancy is 14 years less that a non-smokers. It would be a win, win, situation. We all get be healthier.

In conclusion, smoking should be eliminated because it causes death and sicknesses, it costs the non-smokers money, it harms our environment and lastly, if you or someone you know smokes, they are hurting themselves the environment and even you. Therefore the next time you or someone else is smoking just think of all the harm it’s doing. Eliminating these little sticks full of tobacco would have world wide effects, saving lives and ultimately saving our planet. `It’s obviously clear that smoking is a drag, literally.