FOUNDATION IN ARTS & TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION

MS. MICHELLE GOH

SPEECH TRANSCRIPT

Name: Jaime Lau Aik Seng 刘奕辰

Student ID: 0124366

Topic: The harmful effects of smoking

A very good morning to Ms. Michelle, our esteemed lecturer and educator, and to all

my dearest friends. Everyone has been taught from young that smoking is an addictive habit

that should be avoided due to its detrimental health consequence, and yet millions of people

have been smoking all across the globe. Even now, as I stand here in front of you all, there

are at least 5 known smokers amidst our group of classmates. So, this begs the question: why

do people smoke if everyone already knows that smoking is bad for you? Let us analyse the

psychology behind smoking addictions. First off, what are smokers addicted to in the first

place? To answer this question, we must study the ingredients contained in a cigarette.

Among the 600 ingredients in a cigarette contains a very crucial substance called nicotine.

Each time someone takes a puff of a cigarette, they are also inhaling nicotine, which attaches

itself to the neurones in the brain, thus bearing some effects throughout the body immediately

after exposure. For instance, the drug stimulates the adrenal glands and releases adrenaline,
which heightens heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. Moreover, nicotine also causes the

brain to release dopamine; a neurotransmitter that regulates reinforcement and feelings of

pleasure. Dopamine is usually discharged when you have a pleasant, enjoyable experience

with something – delectable cuisine, favourite activities, desired companionship, and so on.

However, smoking cigarettes releases excess dopamine and then wanes away quickly,

causing people to relapse from the temporary “high” – which will urge them to rely more and

more on the cigarette to feel that pleasurable sensation, leading to gradual addiction and

dependence on nicotine. Through this, smoking deteriorates our physical health.

Smoking deteriorates our physical health because the toxins inhaled by the

combustion of cigarettes into our respiratory systems will kill our body cells. For example, 69

out of the 600 ingredients in a cigarette are things we would never consider putting in our

bodies, like tar, carbon monoxide, acetaldehyde, and nitrosamines. These substances are

usually found in consumer products such as insecticide, lighter fluid and rat poison, and are

therefore poisonous; consequently, it is not surprising that these substances would bear

serious harm to our bodies. For instance, tar causes lung cancer, emphysema, and bronchial

diseases. Carbon monoxide causes heart problems, which is one reason why smokers are at

high risk for heart disease. Not only that, cardiovascular diseases, oral and throat cancers,

chronic lung diseases, as well as sudden infant death syndrome are known among the many

diseases caused by smoking. Moreover, nicotine causes a characteristic brown staining of the

hard palate, teeth, fingers, and fingernails, which is an abnormal symptom seen in plenty of

smokers. Other symptoms include chest pain, shortness of breath, persistent cough, coughing

up blood, frequent colds and upper respiratory infections, persistent hoarseness, unexplained

weight loss, persistent abdominal pain, blood in the urine and more. Nevertheless, smoking is

undeniably bad in our daily lives.

 Secondly, smoking also encourages waste of resources. The tobacco industry thrives

off of the demand for tobacco products – cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and smokeless tobacco –

which is fuelled by nicotine addiction in smokers, which means that natural resources are

continually being exhausted just so that consumers can continue to indulge in disposable,

one-time-use cigarettes to satiate their unhealthy addictions. One of our major natural

resources being threatened by the inflating demand for tobacco products is our forests. For

example, tobacco cultivation on forests since the mid-1970s has resulted in the deforestation

of an estimated 1.5 billion hectares (15 million square kilometres) of (mainly tropical)

forests, acting as one of the largest contributors to greenhouse effect, climate change and

global warming. Tobacco growing and curing (drying of the tobacco leaf) both cause

deforestation because tobacco plantations require the clearing of forests, and one of the

methods of tobacco curing is achieved by burning wood. In relation to this, the conversion of

forests to tobacco farms has also caused the local disappearance of several animal and plant

species. Not only that, tobacco plants deplete the fertility in soil much faster than other major

food and cash crops because they absorb a lot more potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus,

which requires intensive use of fertilizers to make up for their rapid absorption of nutrients in

the soil. Moreover, it is also a necessity for tobacco plants to be treated with large amounts of

chemicals (fungicides, insecticides, fumigants and herbicides) and growth regulators

(ripening agents and growth inhibitors) because tobacco plants are nurtured without rotation

with other crops (i.e. as a monocrop), leaving the tobacco plants and soil vulnerable to

diseases and pests. In addition, manufacturing tobacco products is the most environmentally

damaging step of tobacco production. Some of the highest environmental costs of one

tobacco product alone (cigarettes) result from the water, large amounts of energy, and other

resources used in its production, as well as the wastage made from said processes that

contribute to the environmental impact of cigarette manufacturing and marketing. These

processes include growing raw tobacco leaf (which uses land, water, pesticides), shredding

and assembling the tobacco (which uses energy and metals to manufacture the machines to do

this), processing and coating the tobacco (which uses thousands of chemicals and dry ice),

Dry Ice Expanded Tobacco (DIET) equipment and supplies, and fuel energy used to freeze

and artificially expand the surface area of the tobacco, rolling paper, which uses bleaching

agents and generates effluent (from paper production mills, etc.) and which represents

additional deforestation; producing filters (which uses acetate tow), producing packaging

(which uses paper, plastic wrap and aluminium foil), and manufacturing and logistics (which

uses computer equipment). Furthermore, tobacco manufacturing uses significant amounts of

water in tobacco manufacturing facilities. The consumption of water is spread throughout

DIET treatment, making inks and dyes for packaging and tobacco pulp processing. This is

incredibly wasteful because this can impose severe stress on local water reserves and cause

them to dry up; it is wrong to use water in such a manner because water is a precious resource

that continues to elude people in poverty to this day. Ergo, the inordinate amount of money

and resources in the smoking industry can be made of better use when put into another

industry that would ultimately bear some good (e.g. sports). Therefore, smoking will also

affect our lives economically.

Last but not least, smoking also poses harmful effects to our social lives. We, as

members of society, are taught from young to avoid any potential partakers that indulges in or

promotes societal taboos (e.g. alcoholism). Therefore, partaking in the habit of smoking

yourself makes you a target of ridicule, danger and caution, which actively and/or passively

discourages people from approaching you, which will bear harm to one’s capability to engage

in healthy human interaction and cultivate healthy relationships. For instance, smokers have

testified that they experience difficulties with their love lives, such as their significant others

leaving them due to their unacceptance of smoking and due to it generally being an
undesirable criterion in finding a partner. Furthermore, smokers also commonly experience

complications in finding jobs, as one may hear of their applications being rejected for

numerous reasons such as preserving the company’s unsullied, clean image and maintaining

professionalism in the workplace. Studies show that smokers experience intense disapproval

from their families and widespread societal unacceptability of smoking, even testifying that

people who are influenced by the negative depictions and stereotypes perpetuated by

universal perceptions of smokers would go so far as to think less of a person who smokes. As

a result, smokers feel shame, guilt, and embarrassment for their own smoking behaviour,

which would either encourage them to forsake their addiction or have the complete opposite

effect, which is to resist the internalisation of smoking stigma, grow defensive, indifferent or

resentful at the public for shaming them, fail to quit smoking and possibly amplify their self-

esteem and self-efficacy regarding smoking – which is a risk that we cannot afford to take.

Hence, smoking will affect our social lives by invoking the harsh stigma generated by the

harmful image of “trash of society” among our family members, co-workers, individuals

encountered in public spaces, health care providers and society as a whole.

In conclusion, it is common knowledge that smoking tobacco products would

undoubtedly pose harmful effects to the respective smoker’s bodies and to those around them.

Of course, we also know that because of this, society has effectively stigmatised the entire

phenomenon around smoking, making smokers’ lives unnecessarily harder for them.

However, now we know as well that the manufacturing of tobacco products indeed leaves

dreadful aftereffects to the world at large – killing our forests, depleting our mines and

natural gases of their useful resources, wasting a tremendous amount of water and more – so

summarising all of this would be to say that the only purpose smoking serves to us is to

complicate human issues further and to slowly kill us and our world from the inside. The

reason I say this is not to unnecessarily demonise, judge or to discriminate against smokers or
those who are involved in the tobacco industry. It does not help any parties involved if we

spend our time starting petty feuds and pitting everyone against each other, for now is the

time to realise that this is a real issue plaguing not only millions of people worldwide but

Mother Nature as a whole, and this is a problem that is much bigger than just the “misguided”

smokers, or the “self-righteous” non-smokers – this is a dilemma that affects you and me – all

of us. Thus, we must continue to educate ourselves on this newfound knowledge and to

inform others about the detrimental repercussions of smoking, so that we may live and take a

part in making the world a better place. I urge everyone, smoker and non-smoker alike, to

remember what we owe to ourselves, the world and our mother Earth as we continue to

observe and allow tobacco products to even be a passive influence in our life. We like to

recite a common phrase: “Smoking kills” – but what exactly does it kill? Now you know that

the impact belies more than just yourself – smoking kills the world as a whole. Thank you all

for listening.
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