4 Reasons Smoking Should Be Banned
It is advertised as being ‘cool’, but smoking is, in fact, quite the opposite.
Pic: Pexels Creative Commons / Sera Corcora
Smoking is an addictive habit that many people have picked up, some from a very young age.
It damages your lungs severely: asthma, colds, and wheezing are just the start of these problems, and smoking can lead to many fatal diseases that don’t just affect the smoker.
1. Smoking kills
You have probably seen the phrase ‘Smoking Kills’ on cigarette packets or heard it in general life. This is not just a saying as smoking has a lot of very serious consequences, some of which are fatal. It causes cancer, heart disease, strokes and many lung diseases, all of which can be lethal. It is an addiction which can also cause artery walls in the heart to thicken, making it harder for a sufficient amount of blood to go through.
2. It doesn’t just affect you
Some smokers may not care about the result of smoking and may continue the wretched habit out of free will. Not everyone understands that it doesn’t just affect you, it affects the people around you as they inhale the puffs of smoke. This is called passive smoking. A non-smoker may encounter passive smoking and possibly develop a disease from it, though they aren’t the smoker. It increases the chance of diseases in non-smokers by a quarter if they are exposed to it. They are liable to suffer from it because of other people’s actions.
3. Nicotine
Nicotine is a toxic liquid found in cigarettes and is the chief addictive substance in tobacco. Nicotine is the reason why smoking is addictive. In large amounts, nicotine blocks the action of automatic nerve cells and disrupts your brain. While smoking you are inhaling this.
4. Cigarettes can cause fires
As you should know, cigarettes have to be lit before they are smoked. People don’t realise, but there is a link between smoking and fires. Sometimes you see a cigarette butt on the floor, people do this by stamping on it to put it out.
Unfortunately, not everyone follows this procedure and some people just drop it on the floor. This may not seem like a major issue because a cigarette butt on the floor isn’t going to do much harm, but this habit of not stamping it out can be dangerous. Often people fail to put them out properly when they are tired, distracted, or intoxicated, and if you do this in the wrong place there is a huge fire risk.
Earlier this year, there was a huge fire in West Hampstead in a new block of flats which saw a series of families evacuate the block and five balconies were destroyed. This was all caused by someone throwing away a cigarette butt carelessly.
I despise the idea of smoking and strongly believe it should be banned. Not only does it have a repulsive odour, but it is also dangerous.
Smoking should be banned in all places – it is an unhealthy and disturbing habit.