Misty Filippelli
Persuasion and Argumentation
Professor Lawler
April 5, 2010
Cigarette Smoking is Worthless: An Introduction
Tobacco was widely cultivated in the pre-colonial American continent and had people used it in various ways either by chewing, drinking as a tea, or inhaling as a powder. It was smoking the dried leaves of tobacco that became a practice of early priests as they used it to diagnose and heal the sick and fend off evil spirits. As years went by, smoking tobacco became more than just a ritualistic practice. The recreational use of tobacco became part of the elite culture and soon, it has become a prevalent habit throughout the globe and its production is now considered a multibillion-dollar industry (Gilman & Zhou, 2004). However, the habit has now been attributed to the growing numbers of diseases, birth defects, and deaths. In United States, smoking accounts for 434,000 deaths per year (EPA, 1993). 14,000 people worldwide meanwhile die every day because of smoking-related diseases (Tuscaloosa, 2010). Moreover, smokers aren’t the only ones in grave danger. It has been said that bystanders within the presence of a smoker are in danger of accumulating the health-related effect brought about by the emitted chemicals from a cigar. In fact, 33 percent of the nonsmoker population in the United States is exposed with environmental tobacco smoke coming from smokers (Movahed and Milne, 2006). Moreover, the effects caused by smoking cigarettes don’t stop from the dangers it brings to people. Smoking also affects the surrounding environment – the air, water, and the land.
Because of the abovementioned facts, smoking became a widely disputed concern with suggestions to delimit the advertising of tobacco products and to ban smoking in public places thereby creating a conflict with the money-making aspects of tobacco production and consumption. Yet, when prioritizing the welfare of the people above the profitable and economic aspects that tag along with the production and consumption of tobacco, cigarette smoking can be considered a worthless recreational practice as it brings more loss rather than gains to people and therefore should be removed from the society once and for all.
Issues Concerning Health, Second Hand Smoking, and the Environment
Many health experts and studies consider cigarette smoking as cause of numerous pulmonary-related deficiencies and other ailments as well. The chemicals that constitute a cigarette smoke are considered human lung carcinogen. Carcinogens are cancer-causing materials that impinged the human body at the cellular point (Lee, Lynch, and Newell, 2000). Smoking also injures the arteries and veins in the circulatory system that leads to a condition called atherosclerosis – in fact; tobacco smoke heightens the threat up to 200 percent. Atherosclerosis is a disease wherein blood flow is congested because of the thickening of the walls in the arteries. As the condition progressed especially when left unchecked, the muscles in the heart rupture resulting in a heart attack and even a stroke. Another illness is Buerger’s Disease characterized by unceasing irritation of veins located in hands and feet. Smoking also poses repercussions to those who are planning to become parents someday. In males, one long-term effect of smoking is impotence. Impotence or penile erectile dysfunction is an ailment in which sustaining an erection is a problem. Those aged 30 to 40 are more in danger of acquiring this and the risk will further heighten if they are smokers. The association between impotence and cigarette smoking can be understood if one will consider how the penis functions. Penile erection is prompted by an increase in the blood flow in the arteries located in the penis. Because chemicals in smoke thicken blood, the facility in sustaining an erection is largely affected. Additional harms brought about by smoking include the lessening of ejaculation, poor sperm count, injured sperm motility, and anomalous sperm shape (ASH, n.d). This claim is further maintained by a research of the University Of Pittsburgh Graduate School Of Public Health as it revealed that secondhand and maternal smoking are just the same as both have an overwhelming effect on the unborn child. The chemicals in smoke damage the genes of the child that can lead in to mutation. Such mutation are said to have a lifelong effect with different of health issues from a low weight, lesser rate of survival, and development of cancer (Medical News Today, 2005).
With the abovementioned health illnesses, another concern with the habit is that the similar health effects can also bring dangers to those who are non-smokers. Besides being called as passive smoking, secondhand smoking can be descried as the breathing in of environmental tobacco coming from other people. It is considered an involuntary exposure (US HHS, 2006). There are two sources of environmental tobacco - side stream smoke or the smoke given off by the burning end of a tobacco product, and mainstream smoke or the smoke exhaled by the smoker (NCI, 2007). In a commentary by Dr. Alan R. Gaby (2001), he stressed out that inhaling environmental tobacco smoke can nevertheless cause a myriad of diseases. The Surgeon General of the United States stated that nonsmokers who live alongside a smoker will heighten their likelihood of developing lung cancer by 20 to 40 percent (NCI, 2007). A finding from a study conducted by the New England Research Institutes revealed that male secondhand smokers are considered to have an impotence rate of 14 percent (ASH, 2001). Aside from the repercussions to men, who are planning to become parents, secondhand smoking endangers pregnant women as well. A study showed that there was a 20 percent risk of pregnant women to give birth to low-birth weight infants when they are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke as compared those women who are not (CDC, 2009). In an additional research study, secondhand smoking has been established to be correlated with chronic or persisting couch and the production of sputum. One hundred and thirty nine patients from Veteran’s Association Medical Center were evaluated in the laboratories and from this assessment, a strong tie connecting chronic cough and sputum production and secondhand smoke has been revealed (Movahed and Milne, 2006). With these, the US Environmental Protection Agency (1993) accounts cigarette smoking for 3000 deaths of nonsmokers per year. Perhaps these studies concerning the exposure to secondhand smoke can be considered as something pointing to the danger it may possibly bring to children. The primary place to where children inhale in environmental tobacco smoke is at their homes. In the US, 3 million children below six years of age take in these smokes four days a week at least (HHS, 2006). Infants are regarded to be at the elevated threat since their bodies are still in the development stage. The damages to their lungs are not curable and will be carried on until they grow up. Brain injury is also likely to come about. Some cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, a major cause of death among infants are linked with second hand smoking. Children are also affected with illnesses raging from bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infection. A 1992 research by the EPA showed that there were about 150 to 300 thousand lower respiratory tract infection cases each year with infants and children as patients. Children of parents who smoke half a pack a day or more have doubled risk of being hospitalized for illnesses such as aggravate sinusitis, cystic fibrosis, rhinitis, and persistent respiratory problems such as cough and postnasal drip. Ear infection occurs when inhaled smoke aggravates a tube that connects the rear of the nose with the middle ear resulting in inflammation and obstruction which interferes with the equalization of pressure in the middle ear. This then causes an extreme pain brought about by the fluid and infection. Such ear infections are said to be the most widespread cause of hearing loss among children (EPA, 1993).
The aforementioned concerns relating to smoking all point out to the health hazards it may bring. Nevertheless, as much as the public knows that smoking causes health hazards, another issue has remained quite unnoticed by the general public. It has been said that cigarette smoke is made up of different chemicals (Tuscaloosa, 2010). These chemicals don’t only pose danger to people, but to the environment as well, it contributes to environmental pollution. Because of the fact that 30 percent of people in North America are smokers (NHIS) and the numbers are growing in developing countries, the emission from the cigarettes lit everyday amount to total air pollution (Cassan, 2007). In addition to this, the production of tobacco is very damaging to the environment. Nearly 600 million trees every year are being cut down to dry tobacco leaves, as a result clearing the forest reserves. As an alternative for wood, petroleum and coal are used to fire up the drying facilities. In keeping the tobacco plants healthy, pesticides are used all over plantations to fend off pests that may destroy the crop, thus adding to chemical emission in the soil and air (Bloch, 2008). Cigarette butts also amount to 50 percent of solid waste collected yearly in Australia. The danger with these butts is that they are made up of materials which take a long time to degrade just like plastics. Because these butts take long to decay, the chemicals sipped in to it are absorbed by the soil. In addition, these butts tend to block the drainage systems causing floods.
Smoking Cannot Be Stopped: A Counter Argument and Rebuttal
The best way to prevent the illnesses derived from cigarettes is to quit smoking. But quitting is not an easy task. Nicotine, a chemical coming from cigarette has an effect to the body (ASH, n.d). The brain tends to adapt to this new chemical once it has been introduced to the body and as such, the body becomes dependent on it. This dependency elicits a nicotine craving that drives a smoker to light another cigarette. What’s more is that Nicotine excites the body to produce more sugar, and a deprivation from this chemical, once smoking is stopped, it results in the drop of one’s sugar level. This drop in sugar level causes a poor transportation of oxygen by the blood thereto giving a light headed feeling and dizziness to those who are trying to quit the habit. Other withdrawal symptoms include and change in mood, anxiety, and short temperedness. Though it appears that smoking is addictive, there are numerous programs implemented which are proven effective to overcome the negative effects that tag along with quitting (Ferrer, 2006). A 1992 paper concluded that hypnotherapy is the best method to break the habit as it removes the usual withdrawal symptoms. This therapy works by finding causes to symptoms and then removes them (The Chronicle, 2010). Of course, it will take time and a tremendous effort for a person to totally turn his or her back from smoking, but realizing the threats to one’s health can always be a motivation. As the saying goes, prevention is better than a cure; and to prevent diseases is to quit the habit of smoking. If there are people who have broken the habit of smoking, then it would be possible for everyone to do it.
However, if all smokers break the habit, it would pose a serious threat to the economy. The tobacco is a thriving industry and it’s one of those few businesses that continue to flourish amid economic crisis that had occasionally occurred. Moreover, the government is earning a lot from the tobacco industry as heavy taxation has been poured in to tobacco products in hopes that it would lessen the consumption of these (Bloch, 2008). Because the tobacco industry is an enormous business, it employs thousand of people and the subsequent downfall of such big industry would endanger the jobs of these workers. The United Sates for example employs almost 30 percent of people from manufacturing and farming endeavors. However, there are still different alternatives to this kind of industry. The vast tracks of lands wherein tobaccos are planted are better being put in to use to plant crops. Planting crops would not only maintain farmers, it would also help alleviated the food shortage of the world.
The banning of indoor public smoking in other cities also threatens recreational businesses such as bars and restaurants as it largely affects their customer turnouts. Critics of such legal measures often argue that instead of total banning, there are numerous ways to eliminate the harmful effects of secondhand smoking especially in indoor places like the installation of proper air ventilation systems (Genes and Graham, 2005). The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers rebutted this claim saying that a smoking ban is the only way to completely eradicate the health hazards coming from tobacco smoke adding to this is the fact that there no way that the ambient indoor air can be purified from smoke (ASHRAE, 2005). In addition, it has been a given fact that humans are more exposed to indoor pollution than that coming from an open space (EPA, 1993).
The amount of economic activity would not really be affected if people would stop buying cigarette products. If one would think about it, the circulation of money would remain as is as people would tend to allocate their money to alternative products.
The Perils of Smoking over Economic Viability: Conclusion
With businesses clamoring for their loss because of the ban in smoking, and arguing that such a ban results in serious economic repercussion, is it justifiable to lift such bans for the sake of business ventures? Of course it is not. Smoking has a drastic effect on the user’s health as show in the aforementioned evidences. But apart from them, the so called second hand smoking endangers those who are not even smokers. In addition, smoking also largely affects the environment as it contributes to pollution. It can be said that because of the presented health and environmental concerns, the habit is a social problem that needs to be addressed. If one will think of the welfare of the majority, health and environment comes in the top of the priority and should never be compromised for profit. The myriads problems arising from cigarettes make smoking a worthless habit because if one would think about it, the pleasure that smokers derived from puffing a cigar cannot be equaled to the graver consequences it brings to their health as well as the health of people around them and the consequence it brings to the environment. Therefore, smoking should be considered a societal-ill in the leagues of drugs, pollution, and crime because it’s nothing more than a profit-driven phenomenon in the society which only bring benefits to people who owns the tobacco production companies that victimize the consumers.
Reference
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. (2005). Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Position Document.
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