We must stop smoking because it has killed our ancestors
We must stop smoking because it has killed our ancestors, it is killing us, and it will kill our children. Smoking-caused diseases murdered 14,900 Australians in 2004. This is equivalent to 40 preventable deaths every day. Forty people who will never see their families again. Forty people who will never fulfil their life goals and dreams. Forty people who will die a horrible death and forty families who will never see their son or daughter again. Smoking not only gasses smokers, but also those inhaling the smoke. You wouldn’t murder your child, would you? Smoking will slaughter the population drastically, if something isn’t done about it.
We can’t save the millions who have already died. We can’t save those of us riddled with the indignity of large cell lung carcinoma or emphysema. But we can save our children. Would you happily take 20 years off your child’s life? Would you condemn your child to a slow and torturous death? You surely wouldn’t poison your child, for your own benefit, would you? Then why, being the authority figure, would you force your child to smoke and let the carcinogenic particles enter their lungs, poisoning them from the time they’re born. Every day, every hour, every minute and every second takes a toll on your innocent child. The simple act of breathing becomes a hazard for your loved one. 600,000 people, mainly children, have their lives carelessly ripped from them each year, worldwide, due to passive smoking. 600,000 people who will never see their families again. 600,000 people who will never fulfil their life goals and dreams. 600,000 people who will die a horrible death. 600,000 families who will spend the rest of their lives grieving. Stop smoking because you’re not the only one who suffers.
Each day the number of teenage smokers increases severely. Teenagers are raised with parents who smoke. They automatically assume smoking is a normal part of life, which it’s not. What they don’t realise is that the people who are supposed to be their leaders and teach them the prescriptive guidelines, are teaching them the worst possible life habits. Teenagers start smoking because of their parents, creating a barrier to opportunities and a short, dull life. They torture themselves in the image of their parents, isolating themselves from society. They will lose friends. They will lose jobs. They will lose themselves.
Not only is smoking ruining unsuspecting children and pressured teenagers, it’s ruining the economy. Every cigarette you drag, drags down the economy. The money that makes you unable to have the things you want such as holidays clothes education for your children, the value of the cigarettes smoked just by adolescents in 1996 was about $100 million. From this exceedingly large amount of money, manufacturers received $18 million, then government received about $64 million, and retailers received about $16 million. Money that could be spent on curing the effects of smoking is paying for irresponsible and self-diminishing procedures. We must stop the recurring events of smoking if we want the human population to excel.
Smokers are led astray to believe smoking looks cool and reduces stress. This of course is not true. Are you reducing stress levels when you’re anticipating whether you’ve contracted a terminal illness, which could lead to your slow, merciless death? Does it look cool, when your skin wrinkles, your teeth yellow and you smell so bad that people must hold their breath when they’re near you? Does it look cool when you are being lowered into the ground, with your friends and family mourning over your grave? Smoking is not cool. Smoking is disgusting, vile and putrid. For example, look at the Marlboro Man, Eric Lawson. Everyone automatically assumed he was cool because of his rugged cowboy image. But even the world’s toughest cowboy was no match for the smoking effects of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Another idealistic, famous and very talented smoking victim, Yul Brynner regrets his decision to commence smoking. His last message to the world before he died of lung cancer was, “I really wanted to make a commercial when I discovered I was that sick and my time was so limited, I wanted to make a commercial saying simply ‘Now that I’m gone, I tell you ‘Don’t smoke, whatever you do just don’t smoke’. If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn’t be talking about any cancer. I’m convinced of that.”
Smoking is the world’s most seductive serial killer. Smoking kills smokers and everyone around them. Each day hundreds of teenagers follow in the footsteps of their parents and commence the horrid act of smoking. Smoking “drastically” decreases the economy. Instead of reinforcing the illusion that smoking makes you look cool, it does the complete opposite. Many famous role models such as Eric Lawson and Yul Brynner warned us that smoking is hazardous and must be stopped. As a population we must show current and future generations how terrible the effects of smoking are. No one is safe. Everyone is at risk. Until every cigarette has been stubbed out.
