Essays

Almost everyone knows that smoking causes cancer, emphysema, and heart disease; that it can shorten our life by fourteen years or more; and that the habit can cost a smoker thousands of rupees a year. So how some people are still lighting up? The answer. In a word. is addiction.

Almost no smoker begins as an adult. Statistics show that about nine out of ten tobacco users start before they're eighteen years old. Some teens who smoke say they start because they think it helps them look older. Others smoke because they think it helps them relax. Some light up as a way to feel rebellious or to set themselves apart . Some start because their friends smoke or just because it gives them something to do.

Some people, especially girls, start smoking because they think it may help keep their weight down. The illnesses that smoking can cause, like lung diseases or cancer, do cause weightless but that's not a very good way for people to fit into their clothes!

Another reason people start smoking is because their family members do. Most adults who started smoking in their teens never expected to become addicted. That's why people say it's just so much easier to not start smoking at all.

The cigarette ads from when your parents were young convinced many of them that the habit was glamorous, powerful, or exciting - even though it's essentially a turnoff: smelly, expensive, and unhealthy. Cigarette ads still show smokers as attractive, sophisticated and elegant, or rebellious and cool. The good news is that these ads aren't as visible and are less effective today than they used it be. Just as doctors are more savvy about smoking today than they were a generation ago, teens are more aware of how manipulative advertising can be. The government  has also passed laws limiting where and how tobacco companies are allowed it advertise to help prevent young kids from getting hooked on smoking. Today we're more aware about how bad smoking is for our health. Smoking is restricted 01 banned in almost all public places and cigarette companies are no longer allowed to advertise on buses or trains, billboards. TV, and in many magazines.

There are no physical reasons to start smoking - the body doesn't need tobacco the way it needs food, water, sleep, and exercise. In fact, many of this chemicals in cigarettes, like nicotine and cyanide, are actually poisons that can kill in high enough doses. The body's smart and it goes on the defense when it's being poisoned. For this reason, many people find it takes several tries to get started smoking: First-time smokers often feel pain or burning in the throat and lungs, and some people feel sick or even throw up the first few times they try tobacco.

The consequences of this poisoning happen gradually. Over the long term, smoking leads people to develop health problems like cancer, emphysema (breakdown of lung tissues), organ damage, and heart disease. These diseases limit a person's ability to be normally active - and can be fatal. Each time a smoker lights

up, that single cigarette takes about 5 to 20 minutes off the person's life.

Smokers not only develop wrinkles and yellow teeth, they also lose born density, which increases their risk of osteoporosis (pronounced ahs-tee-o-puh-row-sus, a condition that causes older people to become bent ovel

and their bones to break more easily). Smokers also tend to be less active than non-smokers because smoking affects lung power. Smoking can also cause fertility problems in both men and women and can impact sexual health in males. The consequences of smoking may seem very far off to many teens, but long-term health

problems aren't the only hazard of smoking. Nicotine and the other toxins in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes can affect a person's body quickly, which means that teen smokers experience many of these problems:

• Bad skin. Because smoking restricts blood vessels, it can prevent oxygen and nutrients from getting to the skin - which is why smokers often appeal pale and unhealthy. An Italian study also linked smoking to an increased risk

of getting a type of skin rash called psoriasis.

• Bad breath. All type of cigarettes leave smokers with a condition called halitosis, or persistent bad breath.

• Bad-smelling clothes and hair. The smell of stale smoke tends to linger- not just on people's clothing, but on their hair, furniture, and cars. And it's often hard to get the smell of smoke out.

• Reduced athletic performance. People who smoke usually can't compete with non-smoking peers because the physical effects of smoking- like rapid-heartbeat, decreased circulation, and shortness of breath - impair sports

performance.

• Greater risk of injury and slower healing time. Smoking affects the body's ability to produce collagen, so common sports injuries, such as damage to tendons and ligaments, will heal more slowly in smokers than non-smokers.

• Increased risk of illness. Studies show that smokers get more colds, flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia than non-smokers. And people with certain health conditions, like asthma, become more sick if they smoke (and often if

they're just around people who smoke). Because teens who smoke as a way to manage weight often light up instead of eating, their bodies lack the & nutrients they need to grow, develop, and fight off illness properly.

'Smoking is expensive too

Not only does smoking damage health, it costs an arm and a leg. Depending on where you live, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day can cost about lacs of rupees a year. That adds up. It's money you could save or spend on something for yourself or for the society.

We must realize the dreadful effects of smoking and enlighten the people about its dangerous consequences. 31st June is being observed as the day to say no to tobacco throughout the world.

Vocabulary

I. rebellious—turbulent, disorderly, intractable; 2. convince—prevail upon, sway. Talk round; 3. restricted—controlled, regulated, moderate; 4. persistent—obstinate, stubborn, insistent; 5. easier—no difficulty, simplicity, effortlessness; 6. apart—separately, at a distance, spaced out, distant; 7. convince—induce, talk into, encourage, dissuade; 8. glamorous—lovely, attractive, charming, fascinating; 9. elegant—exquisite, polished, cultivated, refined; 10. restrict—confine, lock up, imprison, wall up; 11. prevent—hinder, impede, hamper, obstruct; 12. manipulative—scheming, calculating, controlling; 13. sictc—unwell, pale, bad, under par; 14. density—thickness, mass, bulk, solidity, concentration; 15. hazard—danger, risk, exposure, peril.