Next I will say why I think people start to smoke. On average people start smoking when they are younger. This may be because they think it’s smart or they want to look big in front of their friends or maybe they just want to look older. Another reason is peer group pressure. For example, if a large group of friends smoked and they offer you a cigarette, it would be hard to say no if you wanted to fit in. Advertising is also a large influence for why people smoke. Cigarette advertisements drag people into believing that they are delicious and good for you. The tobacco industry makes smoking seem like a “cool” thing to do.
Since teenagers see older people all around them smoking, especially their parents and relatives, they smoke to act older. The last reason why I think people start to smoke is the excitement of experimenting with something that is forbidden. Usually parents do not allow their under age teens to smoke. Therefore, smoking becomes very attractive. Maybe they think it is exiting to get cigarettes and sneak away to smoke without being caught.
I will now talk about the dangers of smoking. The soot, tar, gases, and other poisons in cigarettes harm your body over time. Each cigarette a person smokes, shortens your life by five and a half minutes. It can take ten years for your body to shake off the effects of smoking. The dangers of smoking damage your heart and lungs. Smoking makes it harder for you to taste, smell and fight infections. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and chronic lung diseases. It has been linked to about 90 percent of all lung cancer cases. Smoking can contribute to many illnesses and diseases, such as Bronchitis, Emphysema and Heart diseases. About 75 percent of deaths from Bronchitis and Emphysema are attributed to smoking.
If people who have some breathing disorder, they would find it hard to breathe in a smoky atmosphere.
Smoking can also damage the environment. For example, cigarettes butts and cigarette packets cause litter, which is an environmental problem. Lighted cigarettes thrown away carelessly are a cause of many serious fires in homes and public places.
Cigarettes are made from dried leaves from the tobacco plant. Nearly 5 million hectares (600 million trees) are destroyed to provide trees to dry tobacco. Also when tobacco is smoked, over 4000 chemicals are released into the air, polluting environment.
Next I will say some of the laws and rules involved with smoking. One law for smoking is the age limit. The minimum age limit for smoking is eighteen years of age. The others laws are that you cannot smoke in some public places and you can only bring a certain amount of cigarettes back from a duty free shop, so there are limits. Also there are health warnings on the back of cigarettes to warn you about the dangers of smoking.
Finally, I will now answer my main question, which is, why do some young people continue to smoke when they are aware of the dangers? I think that as some young people keep smoking they become addicted although they knew from the start it could cause many diseases. Many people that smoke say that they need it, or they can’t go a day without a cigarette. After smoking for years it becomes more than a physical addiction it becomes mental as well, so it is hard for them to stop. Another reason why young people continue to smoke may be because of stress. Stress is a very common reason why people smoke because they find it to be relaxing. It could be that they just don’t care about the dangers and what smoking could do to them. They know that smoking could give other people cancer, but some people may think that it won’t happen to them. In the end I think it may just be because they enjoy it.
