The Manufacture and Use of Cigarettes Should Be Made Illegal

The manufacture and use of cigarettes should be illegal. This is not just a simple statement. It is an undisputable fact. Cigarette smoking is a detriment to every society in which it is practiced. Firstly, cigarette smoking impinges one’s health. Cigarette smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, including nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide, which are found in tobacco. The daily intakes of these chemicals have devastating effects on the body. Every puff, every cigarette, every pack consumed destroys the body slowly but surely. Airways, lungs, heart and blood vessels suffer daily from the effects of the intake of numerous damaging substances. The effects of smoking includes an increase in the risk of getting throat cancer, lung cancer, heart diseases, it increases the amount of red blood cells in the body which could lead to a stroke or heart failure. Cigarette smoking also affects the skin and male and female reproductive organs. It can also significantly decrease the smoker’s life span. Besides impinging one’s health, smoking impinges one’s wealth. No tobacco product is taxed more heavily than cigarettes. One might therefore say that the manufacturing of cigarette is beneficial to governments and to the building up of one’s nation. However, when we add up the amount of money one spends on buying cigarettes, the amount of money spent on medical bills, the amount spent for heart transplants, rehabilitation centers and funeral homes, is that really so? Hard earned money is being thrown down the drain all for the sake of cigarettes. Thirdly, cigarette manufacture and smoking has a negative impact on our environment. Deforestation is considered one of the most severe environmental problems worldwide. Modern cigarette manufacturing uses wood to cure the tobacco and to roll and package the cigarettes. A cigarette manufacturing machine uses approximately four miles of paper per hour to roll and package cigarettes. It is estimated that for every three hundred cigarettes produced one tree is consumed. It is believed deforestation is changing the world's climate and contributing to global warming. Cigarette smoking also produces carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, hereby further contributing to global warming. The large amount of pesticides and fertilizers necessary for the cultivation of tobacco also contributes to the pollution of our waterways and ecological systems. Cigarette butts take approximately twenty-five years to decompose. Through improper disposal they end up in our seas, rivers and lakes. Different animals and fish eat them by mistake and can die since they are unable to digest the filters. Cigarettes are one of the leading causes for fatal household fires, also affecting the environment. Finally, besides affecting one’s health, wealth and environment, cigarette smoking also affects the rights of non-smokers and children. Second hand smoke can also kill and is considered to be worst than first hand smoke. A person who chooses to smoke chooses to die. However, why should he choose whether the people around him should die too? Who gave him the right to decide who lives or dies? Many people, specifically the children of smokers, are exposed to second hand smoke. As a result many people who do not smoke suffer from respiratory problems due to no fault of theirs. Cigarette manufacture and smoking is indeed detrimental to a person’s health, to their financial status and to the environment. It therefore affects society in many ways. In order for a nation to have stronger, healthier persons in their society, use less government funds for health institutions and programs to quit smoking, not infringe on the rights of non-smokers and children, and to have a cleaner environment, the manufacture and smoking of cigarettes should be made illegal.