Is your hard-earned money going up in smoke, literally! Not as the result of a fire, but the result of smoking cigarettes. If you’re a smoker now, you’re ready to turn the page to avoid any preaching. There will be no preaching, just notes and coins analysis of smoking as a habit.
To a non-smoker the thought of spending money to quit a physically harmful habit is hard to imagine. But the money spent to quit smoking is a mere drop in the bucket compared with what the smoker will spend of the habit is continued.
Since smokers start the habit while they’re in their teens, it’s easy to find people who have been smoking for well over fifty years. If the cigarettes were to be purchased over the counter of from machines, another 30 percent could be added to the total cost. With inflation increasing the cost of everything, including cigarettes, and national and federal lawmakers constantly looking for new tax sources, figures are quoted for right now. Each time new taxes are considered by legislators, tobacco is at the top of the list of items likely to be taxed, especially when funds are needed to offset the direct health costs associated with the prevention, detection and treatment of illnesses attributable to smoking.
The annual cost in this country is estimated to be in excess of £4.5 million.
In addition to the actual cost of cigarettes, there are other expenses of smoking. Excess money is spent strongly on other items such as lighters, matches, cigarette cases, ash trays etc. It’s easy to understand that there is an added cost to support the smoking habit that could easily reach an annual cost of £180. The average smoker will feel that some costs listed above have been estimated on the high side, but not all of the costs have been itemized.
Overlooking the figures which are related to the life of a smoker is incredibly surprising in the long run. Not even do they spend around £5 on a pack, but this is repeated for several years each and every day. But what would be the main reason for smoking to be banned all together, or in public? There are many reasons to explain this situation, but only one of them is taller than the rest. Passive smoking causes not only harm to the smoker, but other people around as well. It can also relate to severe illnesses and disease. People who don’t smoke are always in danger whether they choose to or not. It’s hart braking to hear when a person has inherited a disease from smoker around him or her.
Passive smoking may speed the growth of tumours by prompting new blood vessels to form, according to recent studies. The finding strengthens the link between second hand tobacco fumes and lung cancer, and could aid the development of therapies for tobacco related diseases. People who regularly inhale others’ smoke, live with smokers, or work in smoky bars and restaurants, have a 20-30% greater risk of contracting lung cancer or heart disease. In the United States alone, 3,000 deaths are attributed to passive smoking each year. Cigarette fumes contain more than 60 chemicals, including arsenic and benzene, which encourage tumours.
“Passive smoking accelerates the growth of pre-existing tumours,” quoted John Cooke of Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
Lighting up in bars and restaurants is already banned in many US cities, including New York. A proposed European Union ban on smoking in public places is currently under discussion. The campaign against second hand smoke took blow in May, when the British Medical Journal published a study of 35,000 non smokers married to regular users, which suggested that passive smoking is not a killer. The British Medical Association, which publishes the journal, has since admitted that the research was flawed.
It is therefore clear that smoking has a substantial effect on our community, and should therefore be taken seriously by Governing Bodies and be declared BANNED as a WHOLE also including IN PUBLIC!!
