Young Americans Use of Tobacco

Today’s high school and college age Americans will have to deal with the actions and attitudes of those involved in the current debate over tobacco use in America. As today’s and tomorrow’s smokers and non-smokers, we need to understand that aspects of our future are being decided now.

The use of tobacco has been proven to be very dangerous to health. All though smoking is hazardous to our health, 90% of the populations are smokers. I am proud to say that I am not a smoker. However it is unfortunate that I have lost two great uncles to lung cancer because of tobacco use. According to my grandmother, my uncles started of smoking very young maybe around the age of ten.

Cigarettes are illegal to use for anyone under eighteen. Many people smoke cigarettes to relax, but in fact nicotine increases heart rate and blood pressure. Cigarettes are considered to be gateway drugs. Studies show that more teens are starting to smoke at younger ages than ever before. Most people try out smoking when they are young. Teenagers think smoking is a grownup habit and is often time began as a rebellious act. However some teenagers believe that smoking is an act of independents. Sadly to say it does not and some teenagers find smoking cool. I feel so bad for these teenagers because they too may end up dyeing from tobacco use. It is needless to say that I do not support smoking.

Smoking is dangerous not only to those who smoke but to the non-smokers and the unborn children as well. Cigarette smoking is physically and socially harming. The main contain in cigarettes is known as “tar”. Tar is collected in the branding points of the lungs. The tar contains carcinogenic that increase the risk of lung cancer.

The small particles in cigarette smoke, including carcinogens, irritants, and corrosive chemicals, collect in the small air sacks in the lungs and damage them. When the small partials from the cigarette smoke are absorbed into the blood stream and carried to the other parts of the body, they include different diseases.

All though tobacco nicotine use causes approximately 117,000 deaths per year in America, it is responsible for over 440,000 deaths per year in the world. The health problems that is caused by tobacco use is approximately $75 billion per year in medical problems for smokers could be used to benefit more important things such as education, research, parks, recreation, liberty’s, child care, and charades or children.

There are many “cons” to smoking and or tobacco use such as withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms include irritability, anxiety, anger, difficulty concentrating, and excessive eating. Once becoming a smoker it is difficult to stop smoking because of the withdrawal symptoms that occur.

Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart, liver, and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks. Tobacco can also harm your mouth. Tobacco stains your teeth and gives you bad breath. Tobacco ruins some of your taste buds, so you won’t be able to taste your favorite foods anymore. Tobacco causes bleeding gums, gum disease, and cancer of the mouth and throat.

Nicotine is addictive drug in tobacco smoke that causes smokers to continue to smoke/ along with nicotine, smokers inhale about 7,000 other chemicals in cigarette smoke. Many of these chemicals come from bumming tobacco leaf. Nicotine makes you feel good when you are smoking, but it can make you anxious, nervous, moody, and depressed after you smoke.

The focus of the antismoking campaign needs to begin with young adults, preferably those in their early teens. Bjornlund speculates, “Support for smoking bans is due largely to the dangers of secondhand smoke” and Smoking bans also help reduce teen smoking rates because they limit exposure to adults modeling smoking behaviors and thus can help reduce the risk of teens starting to smoke”. Current methods of tobacco sales to teens such as; placing tobacco products behind counters as a discouragement to teens and placing cigarette vending machines in places (bars, private