Smoking:
It’s Cause and Effect
By:
Queenie
Rose E. Balitaan
English
2 – 29
Professor
Salvacion Santander
March
17, 2011
Outline
Thesis Statement:
Smoking
is a habit that is caused by advertisements, curiosity, peer pressure, and even
becomes an individual’s way to feel a sense of relaxation. If not prevented, it
may result into harmful effects such as illnesses including lung cancer,
emphysema, the so called smoker’s cough and a lot more.
I. Background and Definition
II. Causes
A. Advertisements
B. Curiosity
C. Peer Pressure
D. Sense of Relaxation
III. Effects
A. Occurrence of Diseases
1)
Lung Cancer
2)
Emphysema
3)
Smoker’s Cough
B. Endangers Sex Life
C. Can Cause Wrinkles
IV. How to Quit Smoking
V. Conclusion
Smoking:
It’s Cause and Effect
Smoking, whether in teenagers or in
adults have worsen over the centuries. It is so widespread and gaining momentum
throughout the world. Indeed, cigarettes have been part of people’s lifestyle.
For most, nothing is more enjoyable and pleasurable when you puff your favorite
cigarette. The cool taste of menthol cigarette is a sensation that is enjoyed
everywhere.
Smoking is a habit difficult to
break because it is based on such psychological factor as oral gratification
and such social factors as imitation of the smoking patterns of parents or
friends (New Standard Encyclopedia 1987). Also, smoking is hard habit to break,
because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive. Like heroine or
other addictive drugs, the body and mind quickly become so used to the nicotine
in cigarettes that a person needs to have it just to feel normal.
Smoking is so widespread and
gaining momentum throughout the world. Here in the Philippines, more than
seventy percent (70%) of the populace smoke. A Department of Health (DOH) study
showed that Filipino children start smoking at an early age of seven with a
member of the family as an influence. The Philippines ranks one of the highest
in the world with the number of people who smoke. It is estimated that twenty
three percent (23%) of our youth smoke. According to studies, Filipinos start
to smoke at the age of 14 to 17, a few even as early as nine. Most reasons
taking up for smoking are curiosity, and a negative self-perception, which
results into a strong desire to fit in. Aside from that, early use was
associated with the feeling of grown up and the idea that others
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do it together with early exposure from various
sources like the media, the home environment and community.
Smokers are given warnings every
now and then about the dangers of smoking. But because of unfortunate
individuals who do not get adequate education and are also bombarded with a lot
of cigarette advertisements, the health campaigns are obviously by any means
not sufficient. The big problem about tobacco is that it is a powerfully
addicting habit. Meaning, people see it hard to quit smoking though they
already knew about its hazards.
Why can’t they quit? One very clear
reason is because they are captivated by advertisements which make them crave
to smoke. According to the recent study, at the stage where children are in
their preteen, seeing adults smoking is just a normal thing. This wrong outlook
sprouted because of advertisements that use adults as smokers (Bonson 17). The fact that tobacco companies target the
youth market is because they need teen smokers to survive. John Peirce, a
researcher at the University of California worked on a study about the link
between cigarette smoking and advertising. He warns, “After 30 years of
sustained education about the health effects of smoking, adolescents are the
only group that continues to take up smoking in significant numbers” (Bonson 17).
While several European states control or
even forbid the advertising and promotion of cigarettes, many Third World
countries widely use it to give a perception that cigarette smoking is a mark
of the sophisticated and relaxing way of living which is held to be the
hallmark of progress (Ball 4-5). In Japan, tobacco companies use macho males,
sport’s
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men and even sexy ladies as pictures in their
subways and billboards to promote their product (McIntyre 20). Aside from
advertisements, curiosity is also the people’s reason for smoking, especially
for teens. Teenagers do find the things around them as interesting as ever. Consider
the sixteen year old Nick Reed, a son of a doctor and a nurse. Reed admits to
be curious about cigars. “I just wanted to figure out why people like this so
much,” he says (Klein 53). In a Health and Home article written by Evangeline
C. Rubio, interviewing some public officials about their opinion at smoking,
Mr. Jose A. Romansata, an Executive Director of Gintong Alay stated, “I tried,
with curiosity taking the better of me as a teenager, to try smoking to see how
it was and what it was that seemed enjoyable to other people” (16). Truly, adults
play an important role when it’s about the children’s view in life.
Yes, growing up has never been
easy. For girls, peer pressure and expectations are everywhere. And as
teenagers, friends’ opinion and advice are what they think are important. Thus,
for some, cigarettes seem almost inevitable. Almay Scott’s article in Women’s
Journal notes that fifteen-year old Kate has been smoking since 11. Her parents
are not around, so she could pretty much do as she pleased. Her friends smoked.
Kate was just doing it, to do it. It’s the same story for 18-year old Amy, who
lives just down the road from Kate. She, too, started smoking because everyone
else did (20). Being young people, the offer of puff is tempting and daring and
it could all start with a cigarette stick shared by peers. It can hook an
individual without knowing that it would take a lifetime to kick the smoking
habit (Buenaventura 35). Just think about how many
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young people smoke just because they want to be
accepted, to be one of the gang, to feel grown up, to feel important. Think
about it.
Another reason is the search for a sense
of relaxation. People smoke because the experience of smoking is intoxicating.
This experience of minor intoxication is so important that it lies at the base
of wide appeal that smoking has for human beings. For some girls, they considered
smoking to be the solution of their anxiety. They light up in an attempt to
calm their nerves, to help them relieve anxieties they feel in social
situations (qtd. in Scott 20). Others think that if they have been working
hard, it freshen them up. If they don’t think so well enough, when they smoke,
it seems something comes on to them. Because smoking lessens tension, relaxes
and helps express ideas (Rubio 16). Since it can be done in private, smokers
tend to link the experience of smoking with other private and pleasurable
sensations. They like a cigarette after meals, a smoke along with a drink, a
smoke with coffee and a smoke while resting. They considered smoking as an
inward wonder that needs to be enjoyed (Lake 23). Most smokers have already
learned and knew about the danger of smoking but they still claim that smoking
is fun, it relaxes and calms nerves. They are enjoying puffing so much without
minding its effects on their health.
Would someone choose to be in an
accident? To fall and break a bone? To develop a serious infection? If it’s not
because of him/her, it wouldn’t happen. But unfortunately, they’ve little
control over most of them. That isn’t the case with one of the world’s
deadliest diseases—Lung Cancer. Lung cancer kills more than one million
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people worldwide each year. In accordance with a
1964 detail ensued by the US Surgeon General’s office, the relationship between
smoking and lung cancer was verified. It is said that smoking is responsible
for 85 to 90 percent of lung cancers. But no matter what age an individual is,
he/she can lessen the risk by quitting (The Mayo Clinic 14). In Japan, deaths
from lung cancer are soaring and smoking is considered as an epidemic that
Japanese people just can’t ignore anymore (qtd. in McIntyre 21). In Western
countries, smoking has become the major cause of very high death rates from
lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. For example, the story of a 34 year
old truck driver who had smoked 40 cigarettes a day for many years. When he
coughed up some blood, he was diagnosed as a cancer patient. He died leaving
his wife and five children in misery (Ball 4). Lung cancer kills over 36,000
men and women each year in the United Kingdom and nearly one half of this are
of working age. Furthermore, emphysema, a respiratory disease, is also one of
the cigarette-induced diseases. According to Holland and Mathews, emphysema
causes more deaths and illness than lung cancer. In England and Wales,
emphysema were responsible for 1 in 20 male deaths and 1 in 50 female deaths
during the year 1977 (22). In America, emphysema kills about 35,000 Americans
each year. Autopsy studies suggest most smokers develop emphysema and many have
lost 30, 40, or even 50 percent of their lungs without feeling ill—a suicide in
slow motion (Adams 10). A Lung affected by emphysema with a destroyed air sac
walls make breathing extremely difficult (The Mayo Clinic 15). In addition, another
major illness caused by smoking is the so called smoker’s cough. From the earliest
days, Dan remembered a neighbor named Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins was nice
especially to the kids who loved to play in his
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backyard. But one thing wrong about Mr. Jenkins is
that, he was always coughing, deep and heavy. Usually, after his coughing
moment, he’d smile on the kids and say, “smoker’s cough” (Bonson 16). Studies
showed that almost those who smoke are having difficulty breathing and do
develop a smoker’s cough. Ella V. Buenaventura stated that after several years
of puffing, one starts to have constant throat irritations and coughing (35).
Moreover, could it be possible that
smoking has something to do with ones sex life? If a man can’t perform sexually
the way he did, the problem may be the cigarette he’s holding. The link between
impotence and cigarette use was first suspected when medical researchers
noticed that most men who have impotence caused by vascular problems were
smokers. By age 50, more than 25 percent of male rarely or never achieve
satisfactory erection. Based on studies, the extreme irony for America’s more
than 25 million male smokers is that, smoking can increase the risk of
impotence (Reuben 57). Smoking isn’t only the cause of impotence, of course.
But it really plays a big part when it’s about the sex life. Another surprising
effect of smoking is that facial wrinkling. For teenagers, especially for girls,
physical appearance means a lot. Be thin. Fit in. Have a boyfriend. This are
what, for them, important (Scott 20). Does smoking really cause facial
wrinkling? Yes, it does. A group of researchers in California looked at facial
wrinkling and they found out that the risk of wrinkling in male smokers was 2.3
times that of males who never smoke. With women, the risk is 3.1 times.
According to studies, wrinkling may be due to the drying or irritating effect
of cigarette smoke in the skin. But it is not included as one of the deadliest
diseases, researchers just want to show that
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maybe because of wrinkling, they can encourage
people not to smoke or better still, not to start smoking (Alter 53).
Smoking is really a hazardous,
tempting and a hard to quit habit. But all those cigarette-induced illnesses
could be prevented if people simply stop smoking. Smokers couldn’t resist the
urge to smoke because they already became used to it. But they are nowadays
finding ways just to kick this dangerous entertainment. However, after days of
resistance, they can find themselves coming back again. Until finally, after
years of study, Dr. Linda Ferry’s research in smoking gained an outstanding
recognition. A secured medication was discovered by her that was called as
bupropion, an antidepressant that is capable of controlling the cause of
nicotine on the brain. She said that using bupropion as a tool to stop smoking
is the first that was approved by FDA and it is nonaddicting (Gallagher 10).
Aside from taking medication, there are other ways to quit smoking. Such as
follows: motivate oneself not to smoke, pick a quit date—a date which is something
important that will help encourage oneself to stop; use inhalers—these release
nicotine through the mouth and help stop the urge of smoking; take a gum but
never chew it, just place the gum between tooth and cheeks so the nicotine is
absorbed through the linings of the mouth; counseling, it is one of the best way
to quit because this method helps to understand the nature of addiction and
supports managing withdrawal (Naidu 122-125).
Quitting is not just quitting. It
payoffs a sense of victory, increased-self esteem, pleasant breath, better
tasting food, increased endurance, improved health and energy, a
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feeling of well-being and a freedom from an
inconvenient, unpopular, costly habit. Quitting may also open the way to more
job opportunities (Ludington and Diehl 6).
Based on the data gathered, it was
concluded that too much smoking results into harmful health effects in human
beings. Smokers do only need stop to think to realize how bad and dangerous
smoking is. It can kill more than a million innocent lives of ignorant people each
year (Lake 24). But behind the fact, smokers just let this words enter the
other side of their ears and go out to the other. Without them knowing that
effects of smoking can be prevented earlier just by the help of an open mind
and willing to learn personality.
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Works Cited
Aileen Ludington and Hans Diehl. “Deadliest Drug in
the World.” Health and Home 69
(May-June 2002): 6
Alter, Jonathan. “Does Smoking Cause Facial
Wrinkling?” Newsweek (June 30, 1997):
53
Bonson, Jonathan. “Rebuff the Puff and End the
Cough.” Health and Home 44 (May-
June 2003): 16-17.
Buenaventura, Ella V. “I was a Human Chimney.”
Family Today 4 (May-Sept. 2001): 35.
Gallagher, Jonathan. “New Hope for Smokers.” Health
and Home (March-April 1999):
10-11.
Klein, Alec. “The Truth About Cigars.” Reader’s
Digest 72 March 1999: 53-58.
Lake, Richard. “Pleasure, Real or Imagined?” Health
and Home
McIntyre, Ronald. “No Warning.” Time Magazine
156 October 9, 2000: 20-22.
Naidu, Lalitha. “I Want to Quit…Smoking.” Reader’s
Digest February 2009: 121-125.
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New Standard Encyclopedia. New York: Standard
Education Corporation, 1987
Reuben, David M.D. “Warning: Smoking Endangers Your
Sex Life.” Reader’s Digest
June 1988: 57-58.
Rubio, Evangeline C. “What Smoking Does.” Health and
Home 26 (Jan.-Feb. 1988): 16.
Scott, Almay. “Lighting up to Calm Down?” Women’s
Journal 29 (Sept. 29, 2001): 20-
21.
The Mayo Clinic. “Your Risky Role in Lung Cancer.”
Health and Home 38 (May-June
1997): 14-15
W. W. Holland and Helen Mathews. “Smoking Versus the
Lung.” Health and Home 21
(August 1980): 22-23
