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Quit Smoking

In: Social Issues

Submitted By Jeanettetew
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Quit Smoking
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths and has negative health impacts on people at all stages of life. There are 1.1 billion smokers in the world today. If current trend continues, that number will increase to 1.6 billion by the year 2025. Worldwide, one in five teens aged 13 to 15 smokes. Every eight seconds, a human life is lost to tobacco use somewhere in the world. This translates to approximately 5 million deaths annually.

Research has shown that smoking reduces life expectancy by seven to eight years. On average, each cigarette shortens the life a smoker by around 11 minutes. While smoking harms your health, you will not realize it initially. That is why the World Health Organization termed tobacco as a “gradual killer.” A strong combination of psychological and biological factors has kept people to continue smoking. The chemicals in cigarettes work on the structures deep within the brain of a smoker, literally rewiring it so the habit becomes deeply ingrained. By the time the effect surfaces, smokers are addicted and it might be too late.

The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you smoke, the higher your risk of getting cancer. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which rarely affect non-smokers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are 4000 chemical compounds found in cigarette with at least 250 of them are harmful to human health. Carbon monoxide, tar and nicotine are three examples of such chemicals found in cigarettes. They can lead to immense damage of body functions, including damage to the lungs, the heart and the brain.

Undoubtedly, smokers are more prone to getting diseases as the chemical compounds in cigarettes can deteriorate body cells. Lung cancer, bronchitis and emphysema are some of the deadly diseases that smokers can get.

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