No matter where I’m walking to, I end up behind someone smoking a cigarette at some point. And that’s fine. From time to time, the scent can be alluring.
Sure, we all know cigarettes are dangerous. Blah, blah. Don’t want to hear it. But there are greater risks with smoking than just the common “damaging your lungs” warning that we all know quite well.
An estimated 1.3 billion people in the world smoke cigarettes. Maybe many of us have at least tried it, if not caved in to the addiction.
Tobacco use of land and crops denies about 10 million to 20 million people access to food, contributing to world hunger. That land could be devoted to food production instead of tobacco. On top of that, the land is ruined and degraded.
Also, many people who live in underdeveloped areas use cigarettes.
Low-income families with high stress levels might feel like having an hourly drag to ease some of their anxiety. At the end of the day, there isn’t enough money to pay the health bills associated with smoking and there isn’t enough cash to buy what’s really needed.
Smoking cigarettes harms the environment. One little cigarette won’t do much harm, but when you add every pack per day, smoked by thousands of people, all that smoke really adds up to one big cloud of carbon dioxide and toxic fumes.
Fires caused by tobacco are also harmful. This might seem like a rarity, but it happens much more often than assumed. And the damages can be unimaginable. One of the worst forest fires caused by cigarette use was in China 25 years ago. This fire killed 300 people, forced 5,000 people into homelessness and destroyed billions of acres of land.
Many smokers dread hearing the redundant warnings of smoking, but it’s a vital warning. The seemingly obnoxious “tobacco kills” statement frustrates many cigarette users. Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the entire world, which seems ludicrous seeing that diseases caused by the choice to smoke could be avoided.
Another huge issue with tobacco is that it disturbs economic productivity. Many Americans are concerned about how tobacco negatively impacts our country’s financial system. In 2006, studies estimated that U.S. consumers spent about $90 billion on tobacco.
Because tobacco has no true benefit for society, we end up wasting the money spent on cigarettes instead of on what could have been valuable resources.
The time people spend smoking adds up. The packs add up. The money spent adds up. The tar in our lungs adds up.
Quitting smoking can be a serious challenge. It’s not easy, but putting in the effort toward lowering your intake is at least commendable. If trying to quit is not for safety and health reasons, then let it be for your wallets — for the money that feeds this bad habit. Or letit be for helping the environment.
Olivia Harlow is a sophomore studying journalism and photojournalism and a columnist for The Post. Email her at oh258409@ohiou.edu.
