Cigarettes, with more than 480,000 deaths each year, are the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. With every cigarette lit, more than 7,000 chemicals are released into the air. This poses a threat not only to the smoker, but also to everyone who breathes the air around them. After becoming extremely popular in the 1980s, smoking became a global epidemic. The purpose of this essay is to educate younger generations about the dangers of smoking. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the Original EssayBryan Curtis, from St. Petersburg, Florida, was just 13 years old when he started smoking cigarettes. Little did he know that 20 years later he would leave behind his wife, Bobbie, and their two-year-old son. Bryan discovered he had lung cancer at age 33 and died 47 days after his diagnosis, less than a month after his 34th birthday. After realizing that his addiction would soon be the cause of his death, Bryan began educating teenagers about the effects of cigarettes. Once Bryan could no longer actively advocate for himself, his mother, Louise Curtis, began speaking out on his behalf. Bryan and his family even chose to have an open casket funeral to show everyone the sad reality of smoking. A common misconception, especially among teenagers, is that taking just one puff won't harm them. However, according to a report from the U.S. Surgeon General's Office and researchers at Keck Medicine at the University of Southern California, a single hit is enough to cause a lot of damage. “Because tobacco contains thousands of addictive chemicals that cause cancer, even one puff of tobacco can harm the body, the report says” (King keckmedicine.org). After you take a drag on a cigarette for the first time, your nose and throat will become red and irritated and you will start to cough. In addition to immediate consumption of dangerous chemicals, you may experience tooth discoloration, bad breath, and age spots. Worse yet, you expose your body to the possibility of addiction. “Because nicotine is a stimulant, your brain releases feel-good chemicals or makes you want to eat. When you don’t satisfy this urge, you will feel anxious and irritable.” So, not only are you causing immediate damage to your body, but you are almost guaranteed to develop a nicotine addiction. Besides the short-term effects, habitual smokers are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and many forms. of cancer. Additionally, smoking increases the risk of having a stroke. A stroke occurs when brain cells become damaged due to a lack of blood flow to the brain. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smokers are two to four times more likely to have a stroke than nonsmokers. “Smoke inhalation damages blood vessels and can make them thicker and narrower. This makes your heart beat faster and your blood pressure rise. Clots can also form.” Another significant risk associated with smoking is the development of COPD, or officially known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. As the CDC reports, smokers are nearly 13 times more likely than nonsmokers to develop COPD. COPD is a disease that involves obstruction of the lungs at different stages. Some symptomsinclude shortness of breath, overproduction of mucus, and coughing. If you have asthma and you smoke, smoking can make your attacks worse. Smoking cigarettes can also theoretically cause cancer in any part of your body. Common places where smokers develop cancer include the lungs, bladder, liver and stomach. “Smoking also increases the risk of dying from cancer and other diseases among cancer patients and their survivors. If no one smoked, one in three cancer deaths would not occur in the United States. » When smoking a cigarette, the thousands of chemicals affect not only the smoker, but also everyone around them. “Since the Surgeon General's 1964 report, 2.5 million non-smoking adults have died from breathing second-hand smoke.” Second-hand smoke can also affect children with asthma and make their asthma attacks worse. Second-hand smoke is extremely harmful to the cardiovascular system and can cause heart disease and stroke. “Nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent... Exposure to second-hand smoke causes more than 8,000 stroke deaths each year. year ". These numbers are extremely concerning, especially since non-smokers do not choose to breathe these chemicals. Second-hand smoke also increases the risk of heart attacks in non-smokers. “Breathing second-hand smoke interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood and vascular systems, increasing the risk of heart attack. Even brief exposure to second-hand smoke can damage the lining of blood vessels and make your blood platelets stickier. These changes can cause a fatal heart attack. Additionally, those who already have heart disease are even more prone to these second-hand smoke-related problems. Many non-smokers have difficulty understanding why people start smoking and why they don't want to quit. It is more likely that people become addicted to nicotine during adolescence. This is because the younger you are, the more likely you are to become addicted to nicotine. “According to the 2014 Surgeon General Report (SGR), nearly 9 in 10 adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18, and almost all started by age 26.” The physical and emotional effects of nicotine on the body are what get the smoker addicted. As your body gets used to these effects, you will need to smoke more to get the initial "buzz" that smoking gives you. This is what makes quitting smoking so difficult. Withdrawal symptoms can be as minor as headaches and dizziness, or as extreme as anxiety and depression. Quitting smoking is especially difficult for those who smoke to cope with mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. “If a smoker uses tobacco to help deal with unpleasant feelings and emotions, it can become a problem for some when trying to quit. The smoker may also associate smoking with social activities and many other activities. All of these factors make smoking a difficult habit to break. » For many people, cigarettes are used to help relieve stress. The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) conducted research on healthcare facility staff because of the emotional and physical challenge their work presents. “Workers who have experienced two-way conflict – that is, both stress at home after work (conflict).. 2019.