Once You Start, It’s hard to Stop: Andrew Stansell (fgcu)

8. October 2009 by student.

Almost everyone knows that smoking causes cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. More so, that it can shorten your life by 10 years or more and that the habit can cost a smoker thousands of dollars a year. So how come people are still lighting up? Is it making you cooler or is it working as a chick magnet? Tobacco contains nicotine which is highly addictive and the reason why it is so hard to break the habit of smoking. The body and mind of a smoker quickly becomes so used to the nicotine in cigarettes that they need to have it just to feel normal. Statistics show that 9 out of 10 smokers started before they were 18 years old and probably never thought they would ever get addicted to it. That’s why it’s better to just not start smoking at all.

            Many of the chemicals in cigarettes like nicotine and cyanide, are actually poisons that can kill is high enough doses. Over the long term smoking leads to health problems like heart disease, stroke, and emphysema. It can lead to several types of cancer including lung, throat, stomach and bladder cancer. Each time a smoker lights up, it takes 5 to 20 minutes off of their lives. The only thing that really helps a person avoid the problems associated with smoking is staying smoke free. This isn’t always easy, especially if everyone around you is smoking and offering you cigarettes. Peer pressure can play a major factor in your choice to smoke. The addiction is hard to break free from, but doing so will better your health drastically. Staying smoke free will give you a whole lot more of everything — more energy, better performance, better looks, more money in your pocket, and, in the long run, more life to live. 

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