Smoking Editorial

by Bobby C.

Smoking. How many times has this issue been brought to the table? Most people know the many, many
health risks of smoking, yet millions are still dying from smoking each year and many are starting
smoking each day. So now it's time to bring the facts to the table, again.

The main problem with smoking is all the many health problems it causes. The most common of these is
cancer of the lungs. However, smoking can also lead to prostate cancer or colon cancer, along with other
cancers throughout the body. Another major, usually fatal disease caused by smoking is emphysema.
Emphysema is a condition where small air sacs in the lungs are completely destroyed, making it difficult
to breathe. Gerda Cardos, 79, and a long time smoker, has emphysema and states, "All other areas of by
body are healthy...I could live another fifty years if I only had a new set of lungs."

Back in the day, no one completely knew the extent of the damage done by smoking. Gerda started
smoking simply because, "I was hungry. It was after the war, and food was scarce. Smoking settled the
stomach." But if we know all these facts, why do people start smoking? Some do because of peer
pressure, or out of pure curiosity. Some of it, though, goes right to the advertising done by Big Tobacco.
Big Tobacco makes smoking look glamourous and cool. They do this by depicting beautiful women
smoking, or men smoking surrounded by women. They could have it totally unrelated to smoking too. A
group of people could be surfing or something, and then a pack of cigarettes are just laying in a jean
pocket or something. Either way, they try to make smoking look interesting to tempt younger kids. They
also tempt them by placing the ads at a height where little children can see them straight ahead. All this,
to make up for the smokers who die everyday, just treated like another faceless statistic by the tobacco
company.

We know the facts. We know that the tobacco industry is just a group of heartless people that don't give a
monkey about the general public. These companies rake in billions by selling death in cylinder form. So,
what's to be done about it? Write to the local congressman? That probably won't do anything. There's
too much money in smoking for the government, which is why cigarettes are over five dollars a pack. The
best thing to do would be a national boycott of tobacco. Hit the companies where it hurts. Lawsuits only
give them little blows in the long run. They may lose $20million, but when they're raking in billions and
billions a year, this is really minute. A boycott would take down their overall income, and it would kill
their stock, and their overall profit. Hitting them where it hurts is the only way. In conclusion, fight Big
Tobacco, don't smoke.

by Bobby C.