Persuasive Essay Smoking

I can still hear my dad’s words in my head, “if only I had quit sooner.” My dad decided to quit smoking cigarettes about eight years ago. He was fed up with letting his addiction to smoking since the age of fourteen, rule his life. Smoking had taken its toll on his health and it was an unnecessary financial burden on him and our family. My dad knew how bad smoking was for his health. He also knew how harmful secondhand smoke is, and thankfully, he chose not to smoke around his family. Smoking is the most preventable cause of death, but unfortunately it is responsible for nearly 1 in 5 deaths in the United States. The 1982 United States Surgeon General report states that “Cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality [death]

Smoking is linked to multiple different forms of cancers such as lung, larynx (voice box), nose and sinuses, pharynx (throat), stomach, pancreas, kidney, and bladder to name a few. Lung cancer is the number one cause of death related to cancer for men and women and is very difficult to treat. A person with lung cancer not only has significant pain, but experiences anxiety related to the feeling of not getting enough oxygen. Besides cancer, smoking is linked to multiple other health problems – heart disease, aneurysms, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. With heart disease, the nicotine in the blood increases the level of adrenaline which leads to an elevation of the blood pressure by causing blood vessels to constrict. This constriction of the blood vessels makes the heart pump harder resulting in an increased heart rate. An aneurysm in the brain can be caused by the hundreds of harmful toxins in cigarette smoke that weaken the wall of the brain’s blood vessels. The weaken blood vessels can rupture leading to a stroke or often death. Chronic bronchitis is caused by the toxic chemicals irritating the lining of the airway and leading to a buildup of mucus. The mucus is a natural

A pack of cigarettes can cost anywhere from $6 to $10/pack in the U.S. Even if a person smoked a half of a pack per day, that would be $3/day. This would be a weekly expense of $21 and $84 for the month. That figures out to $1,008 in a year. That’s a decent amount of wasted or burned up money. For the last few years, our government has been trying to get healthcare insurance available for every American. Most healthcare insurances give a discount to nonsmokers or they include a “tobacco surcharge”. This tobacco surcharge is part of the new Obamacare. Smokers can face an increase of their premiums up to 50%. The health insurance that is offered at my workplace has a required health screening annually if you want to possibly receive the tobacco free discount. A blood test is done to check for nicotine or cotinine is in the blood. If the results are positive for these additives, the employee would not receive the discounted insurance rate. That unnecessary expense of $1,008 annually could contribute towards health insurance or healthier food for their