Persuasive Essay--Protect the People from Tobacco

Tobacco was first used for Native American rituals long before the “white man” came to the Americas, but the Virginian colony found tobacco to be a very profitable cash crop. Then, they didn’t recognize the detrimental effects it has on society. From the beginning, since Europeans have been introduced to tobacco there have been objections to its use. James I said that smoking was “a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fumes thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless” (Edward 44). His opinion was amazingly accurate and nearly prophetic. Even though the harmful effects of tobacco have been scientifically proven, continued efforts in limiting its use have failed. If tobacco (in all forms) was treated as an illegal drug, thousands of lives could be saved.

Regardless of how tobacco is used (snuffed, chewed, or smoked), it is harmful to our bodies. That’s hard to deny. But the most commonly-used and most deathly form is smoking. One cigarette has over 4,000 chemicals, 50 or more of which are carcinogens. Cigarettes have everything from butter to acetone to dirt to formaldehyde inside 12 centimeters of rolled paper; there are even tiny shards of glass used to cut up the back of your throat so the nicotine gets into your bloodstream. The more nicotine in the blood stream, the faster you become addicted to it.

Addiction changes the victim’s way of life. Because their top priority is always having a cigarette handy, their financial situation takes a turn for the worst. Consider this: if each pack of cigarettes was $5 (a low price indeed), a pack-a-day smoker would be spending $1,825 a year, and for what? Smoking causes wrinkles, cataracts, skin damage, psoriasis, and heart disease. The multiple carcinogens are also known to cause cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, lung, bladder, kidney, cervix, and also causes myeloid leukemia. Smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer, making up 125 thousand of the 155 deaths between 1997-2001 (“Cancer Facts” 36). Addiction of any kind also affects your emotional life. Because the addiction is what’s important to you, your friends, family, spouses, often come second.

There have been many programs put into action to educate people about tobacco and others that were intended to decrease its use. Although they worked to an extent, the numbers aren’t good enough. A few people have quit smoking and chewing, but its use is still popular. Youth organizations like Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) and Teens Against Tobacco Use (TATU) have contributed to much of the educating of young people about the side-effects of tobacco. TATU sends high school students into elementary and junior high classes with puppet shows and presentations of the grossness and risks of tobacco. Even so, often times the presentations are given too late because kids are starting to use tobacco at a younger and younger age. Other attempts at limiting tobacco use have been higher taxes and prices on cigarettes and chew. One creative attempt was by codename “Eric the Barfman.” He followed the Marlboro promotion van around the country in his identical van that read “Barfboro” on the side. This annoyance actually led the tour to a crunching halt because people actually mistook Eric’s van for the original Marlboro van. Advertisements against tobacco are even reaching television, radio, and magazines. But the number of users is still too high. People are still smoking with little regard for those coughing around them, and people are still dying from it.

What do the tobacco companies have to say about their poisonous product? One of the public relations of RJ Reynolds has been quoted to say, “We don’t smoke this [expletive]. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid.” You wouldn’t think calling your customers dumb and supporting racism would be a smart marketing tactic, but 20% of adults in America continue to smoke (“Cigarette Smoking”). So what does big tobacco care as long as their income is large enough? In fact, when one of their own scientists, Victor Denoble, finally invented the “safe cigarette,” they refused to put it on the market because doing so would require admitting they were wrong, which would cause them to lose money. They’ve been saying for years that they were ignorant to the bad side-effects of cigarettes (Moore).

Ignorance was their fighting chance when they swore in Supreme Court that they did not think using tobacco was unhealthy. And who can say they didn’t honestly believe it? For all we know, they could all be hopelessly oblivious to the effect of their products. Perhaps they don’t see that they are killing off their customers and tearing apart lives and families. Perhaps they don’t realize that tobacco is subtly decaying their body. And perhaps no one else has noticed that these deaths are all caused legally and by the choice of the person.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are a few lucky individuals who have smoked three packs a day, every day, for 30 years, and they haven’t faced any side-effects. But few are so lucky. Smokers have an overall death rate two to three times that of the nonsmoker (Lukachko). Smoking is a choice, yes, and as citizens of America, we have the right to choose. Choice means freedom, and “freedom” is what we strive for. But is it really freedom if we can’t curb the nicotine cravings? Is it if we can’t go a day without a smoke or chewing? Is it honestly freedom if our addiction is so severe we can’t bring groceries home because you spent nearly two thousand dollars on cigarettes? Freedom is in the eye of the beholder. Technically, we have the freedom to steal, to cheat, to murder, and to abuse, but we’ll pay for it if we do. And frankly, smokers and nonsmokers alike pay dearly for their beloved Virginia Slims thanks to secondhand smoke.

Secondhand smoke is a very dangerous thing. Sure, you’re given the option to sit in the nonsmoking section of restaurants, but as a very witty and wise middle school student once said, “Asking to sit in the nonsmoking section is like asking to swim in the non-peeing section of the pool.” It’s not always your choice. For instance, if your job is in a restaurant that allows smoking, you inhale cigarette smoke at least 40 hours a week. This much intake can cause lung cancer and premature death, just for trying to providing for your family. That is unfair by any account. Again, it is a choice to work there, but sometimes options are meager. Even if you’re not in a workplace that allows smoking, it’s still in the air you breathe. Secondhand smoke makes up 30% of the environmental pollutants, and it can affect you just as badly as if you were smoking the cigarette yourself. Like cigarettes, it contains almost all of the 4,000 chemicals and carcinogens in a whole cigarette—just at a lower density. It can cause lung cancer, bladder infections, ear infections and is a known cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Secondhand smoke is estimated to have caused 25 thousand deaths a year in the U.S. (California).

Again, using tobacco, smoking in particular, is a choice. Taking away the freedom to use tobacco would not be welcomed. And is it really the job of the government to take away this freedom? We can’t possibly ban everything unhealthy. That would be illegal and possibly a dictatorship. For instance, a real demonstrated killer in America is cholesterol, and cheese is a major contributing factor. If we are to make cigarettes illegal because they cause lung cancer, why not make the consumption of cheese illegal too, targeted mainly at the cheese states like Vermont? But in the words of Senator Finistirre in the movie Thank You for Smoking, “The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese!” And why not!? There are millions of people dying of heart attacks, which is a much higher number than those dying from the side-effects of smoking tobacco. Well, cheese (regardless of your love for it) is not psychologically addictive like the nicotine in cigarettes. Psychologically addicted means that it starts in your brain so you think you need a cigarette like you need to blink and drink water. Cheese can’t do that.

Washington State, along with fifteen other states, has taken the first step by making it illegal to smoke in restaurants, bars, and workplaces. However, we need to take this a step further. Most people don’t steal because it’s illegal, so if we made tobacco as a whole illegal, my guess is that it would prevent most youth from starting and becoming addicted and would also encourage adults to recover from it.

The state provides rehabilitation for alcoholics, heroin addicts, problem gamblers, and there are even centers for tobacco users. Tobacco and nicotine are not as bad as, say methamphetamines, but it is a problem in our communities. No, it doesn’t cause premarital pregnancies, abuse, or crime, but it is still an unhealthy habit that can be helped. The Food and Health Administration (FDA) has marijuana marked as an illegal substance because it is dangerous to the body. The danger of marijuana is that it poses significant health risks to users and has no medical value that can't be met more effectively by legal drugs (Drug Enforcement.) Although marijuana causes health issues sooner than chew and cigarettes, tobacco has significant health risks as well. As for medical value, nicotine cigarettes actually have a couple benefits. Smokers are less obese than non-smokers and when used in the right dose, nicotine can act as either an anti-depressant, or stimulates alertness and concentration. There is also evidence that it reduces incidences of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (Marimont). However, like marijuana, its medical value is less than the prescription drugs and medicines. Thus, if marijuana is illegal for its harms to the body, the FDA should have tobacco illegal as well. Many say that tobacco is too widespread to really make a difference because prohibition didn’t work. But with tobacco illegal, it couldn’t be advertised, there would be little access to it, and secondhand smoke would be nonexistent. People often mistake that because tobacco is legal, it can’t be too harmful. As a society, the responsible thing to do is to not allow others to make such a dire mistake.

People are dying from HIV, homicide, alcohol, firearms, motor vehicle accidents, and drugs other than tobacco. Combined, all of these kill less than half the number of deaths caused by tobacco (“Tobacco Deaths”). Every time a cigarette is smoked, not only does it take off 7 minutes of the smoker’s life, but it releases dangerous poisons into the air that are inhaled by children, friends, girlfriends, cousins, grandparents, husbands, and mothers. Yes, it is the American right to have a choice, but you can’t tell me that it’s actually a choice for the girl who lives in a house with parents that smoke. You can’t tell me it’s a choice for the school children who walk by the pub to get to school. You can’t tell me it’s a choice for the single mom to inhale smoke at her minimum wage job. You can’t tell me it’s a choice for the newborn baby who died because his mother smoked. If we make it illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving and to not wear your seatbelt because they risk damaging our health, how much more important is it to ban cigarettes? It’s not only a risk, it’s a proven cause of death for people of all ages, whether it’s a choice or not. If tobacco was illegal, the annual death rate would decrease by at least 25 thousand from secondhand smoke alone. And those who have power should do everything they can to protect their fellow human beings.

Works Cited

California Environmental Protection Agency. Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Final report, September 29, 2005, approved by Scientific Review Panel on June 24, 2005 [cited 2006 Sep 27]. Available from: http://www.arb.ca.gov/toxics/ets/ets.htm.

“Cancer Facts and Figures.” 2006. American Cancer Society. 14 Nov. 2007. <http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2006PWSecured.pdf>.

“Cigarette Smoking Among Adults.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. 9 Nov. 2007. Department of Health and Human Services. 15 Nov. 2007. <http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/MMWR/2007/mm5644_intro.htm>.

Drug Enforcement Administration. "Marijuana Is Harmful." At Issue: Marijuana. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Spokane Falls Community College Library. 29 Nov. 2007 http://find.galegroup.com.

Edward L. Ayers, Lewis L. Gould, David M. Oshinksy, and Jean R. Soderlund. American Passages: A history of the United States v. I. Belmont, CA: Thomson Advantage Books. 2007.
Lukachko, Alicia M, and Elizabeth M. Whelan.

"Smoking Causes Significant Health Problems." Opposing Viewpoints: Chemical Dependency. Ed. Laura K. Egendorf. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Spokane Falls Community College Library. 19 Nov. 2007 http://find.galegroup.com.

Marimont, Rosalind B. "The Harmful Effects of Smoking Are Overstated." At Issue: Smoking. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Spokane Falls Community College Library. 19 Nov. 2007 http://find.galegroup.com.

Moore, Derek and Rossi, Chris. “Researcher Sheds Light on Nicotine.” Contributing Writers. The Daily O’Collegian. 18 Oct. 2007. http://www.ocolly.com.

“Tobacco Deaths Overwhelm Other Causes.” Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). 2004. http://no-smoking.org/june01/06-28-01-4.html.