Why Cigarettes should be illegal
Every year, cigarettes are the cause of more than 450,000 premature deaths in the United States alone. Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances.
Cigarettes are a leading cause of lung and heart cancers as well as a major factor in premature and stillborn childbirth; they can also be blamed for birth defects as well as learning disabilities in children of smokers. Cigarettes and smoking in general causes illness and can even cause death, smoking does not just affect your lungs but every organ in your body. The production and sale of cigarettes should be banned due to the massive negative effects it poses on its users, not just physically but mentally but those who are around them as well.
Cigarettes provide zero health benefits whatsoever. When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins. This release if toxins is the main reason why cigarettes are so dangerous; smoking cigarettes has been proven to as surefire way to shorten ones life expectancy rate. Cigarette smoking has been shown to be the cause of over 100 deadly illnesses ranging all the way from Ovarian cancer to Severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Medical reviews posted on cancer.org states “Cigarette smokers die younger than non-smokers. In fact, according to a study done in the late 1990s by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking shortened male smokers’ lives by 13.2 years and female smokers’ lives by 14.5 years. Men and women who smoke are much more likely to die between the ages of 35 and 69 than those who have never smoked.” This quote further pushes for the re-evaluation on the legalization of cigarettes due to the emphasis it places on the health issues posed by the indulgence and or abuse of them.
One argument cigarette smokers use to justify their habit is the claim that smoking is a stress alleviator, this is actually untrue. The Mental Health Foundation has done an evaluation that confirms that not only does smoking not reduce anxiety, but “Research into smoking and stress has shown that instead of helping people to relax, smoking actually increases anxiety and tension. “ This is based on the cycle of withdrawal and cravings smokers go through when they are unable to find a cigarette. It is also been exposed as another cause for depression, relating to the creation of artificial dopamine created by smoking cigarettes that otherwise decreases ones natural chemical flow, in turn causing more depression.
Cigarette smoking affects not just the smoker but everyone around them. Secondhand smoke is harmful to not just people but even the pets and live plants in your home; it is classified as a “known human carcinogen” (cancer-causing agent) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US National Toxicology Program, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer( World health Organization). Secondhand smoke causes illnesses in children and non smokers. Babies and children especially being at uncreased risk to serious plague such as
sudden infant death syndrome and respiratory issues. Secondhand is even harmful to pregnant mothers, causing miscarriages, low birth weight and other delivery issues; it can also be a reason for low conception rates in men causing low sperm count as well as erectile dysfunction.
All in all there are no pros to smoking cigarettes. The cigarette is the deadliest object in the history of human civilisation. Cigarettes kill about 6 million people every year, a number that will grow before it shrinks, the cigarette is also a defective product, meaning not just dangerous but unreasonably dangerous, killing half its long-term users. Why not ban something that causes nothing but harm?