What if you were forced to watch someone you love kill themselves, they’re hearts beating slower and slower, they’re lungs cease to work. If you know someone who smokes then that’s exactly what’s happening. 3.5 million people are expected to die from causes directly related to tobacco use (“Cigarette Smoke”) and nearly all of them had started smoking before their high school graduation. The younger you begin to smoke, the more likely you are to be an adult smoker. Young people who start smoking at an earlier age are more likely to develop long-term nicotine addiction than people who start later.
So why do teens start smoking? You might ask. Most teens start smoking for two contradictory reasons: They want to be part of a peer group, while rejecting society and its norms. They want to reach out and to rebel at the same time. Teenagers also relish smoking as a sigh of independence, even impudence. The more authority figures tell them not to smoke, the more psychic rewards they get from the habit. (Roberts), but watching popular movies is the No. 1 factor leading nonsmo
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She says that many ads make smoking look cool in a way that appeals to the young. One document even revealed that some companies studied adolescent psychology to learn how to make cigarettes more appealing to teens (Schwartz). Did you know that in the 1980s, tobacco companies actually signed contracts with movie studios and stars like Sylvester Stallone, stating that when their characters smoked on film, they'd get kickbacks? The tobacco industry stopped making these deals in 1989, but lots of movies still feature smoking (Schwartz). So children: make smarter decisions, Adults: guide them into making better decisions, and it’ll just warm your hear when you hear your little girl, talking about her first smoke, say, "I remember sitting there and thinking--I was cool, I'm a rebel. In a recent study, teens who thought their parents would disapprove of them smoking were less than half as likely to smoke as those who thought their parents didn’t care (“Child and Teen…”). In Washington state voters overwhelmingly approved a 60-cent tax increase for a pack of cigarettes along with increases for other tobacco products, too. 5 million people are expected to die from causes directly related to tobacco use, This death rate is expected to rise to 10 million by the year 2030 (“Cigarette smoke…”).
It is very important for parents to act now. Now, I look back, and I was such a dork. Only 14% of lung cancer patients survive 5 years after diagnosis (“Cigarette Smoke…”) Cancer isn’t the only major risk. Every drag you take fills your lungs with 4,000 toxins – and 43 of them are known to cause cancer (Schwartz).
The portion of teens that smoked cigarettes dropped to 28% in 2001, from 36% in 1997.
Its amazing to me that so many people would take up smoking even after being informed of the dangers, and I’m not just talking about bad breath. Many tobacco ads and promotions are aimed at teenagers. Cigarettes are a gateway drug and the longer you delay, the more likely they are to try other things.
Approximate Word count =
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3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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