It has been a while since smoking was discovered to be dangerous to smokers and the people around them.  So why are people still smoking?  Why are teenagers still buying cigarettes even when they know that smoking is bad for themselves?  All of my friends who I have talked to about the habit of smoking will agree that it is disgusting smells bad, and is absolutely horrible for you.  We do not get why people smoke.  The truth is that there is no reason to smoke.  There is no reason at all to start smoking.  Many people claim peer pressure or that their parents and friends smoke.  No one I have ever met has claimed that they did not know that smoking was bad for them when they started.

Most of the generation who grew up smoking without knowing the dangers of smoking have passed on.  When I was in Elementary school a presenter came and showed us just exactly what was going into our bodies when we smoked.  Most of us were scared or disgusted, but there was always that one student who said, “When I grow up I am going to smoke.”  Their reason was always that their parents smoke; so one day they will smoke too. It was inevitable.

Break the cycle.  Every person has the right to be different.  One of my friends got into a great deal of trouble with her parents when she hid their cigarettes.  She loved her parents and she only wanted to do what was best for them.  Her parents refused to change.  Not everyone can change, and a lot of the people who start smoking never quit.

According to research reviewed by Neil Izenberg about 1 in 4 teenagers smoke.  One of the common reasons teenagers start smoking, is trying to prove that they are tough and trying to be more like a grown up.   But are people who smoke really grown up?  Yes, they may be adults and they may make their own money, but they are far from independent.  Supposedly, that is what all teenagers are about, becoming independent.  They do not want their parents to control their lives.  They want to prove that they can do whatever they want to do.  But once the nicotine kicks in, a smoker is just a slave to a drug.  Cigarettes do not give a person independence.  They make a person dependant on another.  Not another person, but nicotine in the form of a cigarette.  A cigarette that fills their lungs with tar, causing cancer and heart problems.

Smoking also can isolate a person.  It makes them smell and have yellow teeth. The stench of cigarette smoke seems to follow them around like a haze and is left behind even when they have left.  The smell of cigarette smoke is all too familiar to me.  When I breathe in someone’s smoke I begin to feel a choking feeling.  A lot of times I gag or cough if it catches me by surprise.

Smoking is a plain disgusting habit.  Not one thing about killing oneself is cool.  It is vile and disgusting.  Have you ever been walking on a sidewalk when a person is smoking?  Have you ever passed by a smoker and they just blow smoke in your face?  This behavior is not only rude, but it is also dangerous.  Pollution is never a good thing.  Cars are required by law to go through multiple smog checks.  There are laws restricting what you can and cannot throw away.  The fine for littering can amount to over 1,000 dollars.  Throwing a cigarette out of a moving car or smashing a cigarette into the ground with one’s shoe and then leaving the butt lay on the floor is littering.  So now smokers are polluting both the air and the soil.  Most smokers are responsible for their own deaths. People cannot make the world a better place if they go on promoting unhealthy habits.

As non-smokers there is one thing that we should all say more often.  Most smokers will ask, “Do you mind if I smoke?”  Most of us say, “no” out of guilt or because we think that they can just go outside and it will not come in the house.  But what we all should say is, “Yes, I do mind” or “No, you may not.”  Why should we say this?  Because the longer that someone that we love smokes the harder it will be for them to quit and they should no that they do not have the right to come to your home and spend your time with them out in the backyard or front yard smoking.  It is also sending a message to your neighbors if you let people smoke.  If you let people smoke then your neighbors may feel that it is fine for their friends to smoke and think that you, as neighbors, will not mind.  If you mind then do not let your friends smoke at your house.   A smoker may never stop or truly understand how you feel if you do not tell him or her.  It is hard for a smoker to quit if the people they care about allow them to smoke.

Every cool summer night when my family watches T.V. we let the clean summer air come into our house.  Almost every night we will smell a horrible smell and know that our neighbors are smoking.  Cigarette smoke travels, and it hurts more than just the person who is smoking.  Every day the smoke comes in we are forced to give up our clean air and shut the doors.  But the smell stays for about fifteen minutes.  It always feels like longer than fifteen minutes and it continues to seep in through the crack between two sliding doors and pollute our private home. Smoking does not affect just one person.  It affects a community. There is an average of 1,200 smokers dieing each day.  It is time to lower those numbers until not one person dies of smoking, because no one has the right to kill themselves or another for selfish reasons.

Site http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/house/smoking.html