Approximately 8.6 million people in the United States have contracted serious illnesses due to cigarette smoke. 18 percent of adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. That may not seem like a big number, but a large population is negatively effected.
Smoking has existed for thousands of years according to helpwithsmoking.com. It dates back to 6000 B.C. when tobacco was grown around Central America. The site also states that it wasn’t until 1000 B.C. that the Mayans actually started chewing tobacco and smoking it.
If someone were to decide to pick up a cigarette, it is important to know exactly what is inside. Nicotine, carbon monoxide and arsenic are just a few. There are actually too many ingredients to list. Lung.org says that there are around 600 different ingredients and when burned there are over 7,000 chemicals created and at least 69 of those are extremely harmful.
The chemicals in smoking can cause illnesses, diseases and even death. Betobaccofree.hhs.gov states that nine out of ten lung cancers are caused by smoking. Lung cancer isn’t the only kind of cancer a person can get. Smoking can cause cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. It also adds that more than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964. On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years before non-smokers do.
Non-smokers are also widely effected by the dangers of smoking. About 88 percent of Americans are exposed to secondhand smoke, resulting in an estimate of 3,000 non-smokers die of lung cancer each year.
Even with all of the deaths and dangers of doing it, smoking exists in every age range. Although the legal cigarette smoking age is 18, younger teenagers are found doing it. One of the many reasons kids start smoking is because they are influenced by a parent who smokes. More than 3,200 people under 18 smoke their first cigarette according to Betobaccofree.hhs.gov. They also add that nine out of ten of all smokers started before they turned 18 and one in five adults and teenagers smoke.
“I do not smoke. I do not think other people should smoke. I don’t know if I can say it enough. I do not like it!” Yesenia Garcia, an Anthropology major at Mesa said. “It’s gross. I’ve seen all of the videos; I know what it can do to your health. Your lungs get all black and tarry, your teeth fall out, you can get all types of cancer.”
Garcia has very strong opinions on smoking due to the negative effect smoking has had on the people in her life. “There have also been people in my family that smoke. My uncle actually had to get a piece of his jaw removed because he was smoking so much. He had to get a bone from his leg to put in his jaw.”
When asked what she thinks should be done about the subject, Garcia replied with, “I feel like the age to buy cigarettes should be changed. There’s a reason why the drinking age is 21. They should give them a few more years to think about what they’re doing to their bodies and realize that they are basically smoking cancer on a stick.”
Smoking exists in many places including bars, clubs, even some restaurants. Some places have begun to ban smoking. An example would be college campuses. Over the past decade many colleges have become smoke-free.
Mesa College happens to be a smoke-free campus, but it wasn’t always that way. Mesa became smoke-free on January 1, 2007.
Suzanne Khambata FNP, the Health Center Services Director was involved with helping Smoke Free Mesa. “A student name Kendra Jackson approached the SDCCD Board regarding her inability to control her asthma symptoms when exposed to secondhand smoke at school. We were asked to address the smoking issue on the Mesa Campus,” she explained. “We have a webpage with more information about Smoke Free Mesa at www.sdmes.edu/about-mesa/insitution/smoke-free-campus if anybody has any additional questions. If you ever see anybody smoke on campus, the SDCCD police are in charge of that. Please contact them at 619-388-2749.”
Smoking overall has declined each year. From 1964 to 2014, the number of adult smokers has decreased from 42 percent to 18 percent. According to thetruth.com smoking in teens has diminished from 23 to eight percent in the last 15 years.
If you or a friend is trying to quit smoking then quit.com is a great resource. Even though it seems far from over, smoking is coming to an end.