Should Smoking be Made Illegal in the United
States?
By: Emily Blotzer-Miller
Why????? Health Problems Second- hand smoke Nicotine Tobacco Advertisement Smoking while pregnant Littered cigarette buts
Health Problems Smoking causes many cancers, diseases, and other health issues It is the number one cause of disease and death that could be preventable worldwide Smoking-related diseases are the cause of 438,000 deaths each year in the United States
Second hand smoke Also known as
environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)
It is a mix of smoke given off by cigarettes, pipes, or cigars and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers
Secondhand smoke causes almost 50,000 deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year
Second Hand Smoke in Children
In the United States, 21 million, or 35 percent of, children live in homes where residents or visitors smoke in the home on a regular basis
From the chemicals that cigarettes give off, approximately 50-75 percent of children in the United States have detectable levels of cotinine, the breakdown product of nicotine in the blood
Nicotine Nicotine is a drug that is in cigarettes Nicotine affects the brains pathways of reward
and pleasure. These brain changes along with the use of nicotine result in addiction
The amount of nicotine in cigarettes has increased an average of fifteen percent in the past ten years
Tobacco companies are doing this on purpose, because increased levels of nicotine make it harder for smokers to quit
Quitting Smoking When people try to quit
smoking, they experience several symptoms which include, cravings for tobacco, irritability, difficulty paying attention, sleep disturbances, and an increased appetite
Even with patches, medications, and therapies it is VERY hard for smokers to quit
Young Children Smoking Every day approximately 3,600 children
between twelve and seventeen years of age smoke their first cigarette, and an estimated 1,100 of them will become regular smokers. Half of them will ultimately die from their habit
Among students under eighteen who are current cigarette users, 70.6 percent were not asked to show proof of age when they purchased or attempted to purchase cigarettes from a store, and 66.4 percent were not refused purchase because of their age
Tobacco Advertising The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement
(MSA) prohibited tobacco companies from advertising their product in markets that target youth. Since the MSA, the average youth in the U.S. is exposed to 559 tobacco ads
Since they cannot target their ads directly to the youth, now tobacco companies are focusing their ads on young adults, because children want to be like them
Pregnant Women Smoking
Babies of mothers who smoke are twice as likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as babies of nonsmokers
It causes health problems for babies, and in some cases death
Harmful chemicals from cigarettes can be passed into breast milk from the mother, and to the child, resulting in vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea
Cigarette Butts Cigarettes are the most littered item
in America Cigarettes take decades to degrade They cause numerous fires each
year If animals eat these butts, they
cause problems for them If these butts get into soil, they can
contaminate it, and make the things growing in it toxic
Plan The plan to make smoking completely illegal in the United
States would take up to five years:1. Ban smoking in all indoor places in every state2. Stop tobacco advertising and start advertising about all of the
negative effects of smoking3. The government would help people quit by providing patches,
medication, and therapies.4. Tobacco companies get shut down (The government will
provide jobs and financial assistance to those who lose their jobs)
5. The making, selling, and/or smoking of cigarettes will be made illegal in the United States. The punishment for breaking these new laws will be the same as all other drugs
Conclusion Smoking causes so many problems People who smoke are not only
harming themselves, but they are harming other innocent people, children, babies, and our environment
Now is the time to save lives, by making smoking illegal in the United States