America Up In Smoke

2 Pages 565 Words

Have you ever been in a restaurant crowded with people, and reeking of smoke? I know I

have, and it is one of the worst things I have ever smelt. I think the statement, “If there is a

smoking section in a restaurant, then there should be a peeing section in a pool,” pretty much

sums up how disgusting smoking is. If you just think about how many negative factors come

from smoking, or being around smoking, it might make you sick. It amazes me how ignorant

some smokers really are, and maybe it’s time for them to wake up.


Many young Americans think that smoking is cool, while others just do it to relax. Either

way, the teens that do smoke will die much earlier than those of us that don’t. 34.4% of high

school students and 15.1% of middle school students use some form of tobacco, adding to the

430,000 people that die every year from smoking. The sad thing is that tobacco is the leading

preventable cause of death in the US. Preventable means that people aren’t forced to do it or

they can’t avoid it, it means that they want to willingly shorten their life spans. It’s funny that

being a non-smoker almost makes you a minority in America, with 22.6 million women and 25

million men smokers surround you. One of the saddest things I read was that 43% of American

children, ages two to eleven, are victims of second hand smoke. This means that those young

Americans are more susceptible to lung cancer, asthma, and bronchitis, which is not their choice.
The fact that 90% of smokers begin smoking before the age of twenty-one states for itself

that many large tobacco companies target young America, rather than adults. If you’ve ever

watched television, I’m sure that you have seen the Truth ads. These ads show the facts about

tobacco and the companies that manufacture cigarettes. There are also more commercials being

made all the time, such as t...