Selfishness of Second Hand Smoke :: essays research papers

Smoking is an age-old art that many partake in regularly. Smoking is a very expensive habit that can cause long-term problems for only a short-term gain of comfort. The surrounding non-smoking socialites must witness, experience, and live with the smoke day in and day out. According to the American Heart Foundation, 43.3 percent of American men and women indulge in tobacco consumption through smoke. The negative effects of the habit-forming substance crush the positive effects. This is on the borderline of an illegal addicting drug, but publicly allowed. Everyone has a right to smoke, but everyone should respect others as well. In cases I have witnessed in my life, the smoker seems to care less about a non-smoker?s wishes before lighting the cancer stick. I am tired of it and I do not like the fact that surrounding smokers change the course of my life. Second hand smoke, often called passive smoking, is more dangerous than actually performing the act personally. Stated by the American Lung Association, ?Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke. Secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide?, and further states, ?Secondhand smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of cancer in humans (Group A carcinogen).? This is a proven carcinogen that can kill! I personally am not a gambler and I really wish smokers would wise up to consider how many non-smokers dislike their fate controlled by a selfish addict. Your blood and breathing characteristics become unstable and uncomfortable with exposure to smoke. The smoke is an absence of oxygen, which last I recall, allows us to live. Research from the most current Surgeon General's Report concluded, ?Short exposures to second hand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.? The European Respiratory Society performed a study and found, ?Recent research from Finland has shown that passive smoking plays a role in the development of adult asthma. Researchers found that subjects exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace were twice as likely to develop asthma as those who were not exposed.