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[student]

[University]

[Instructor]

[Submission Date]
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There should be a total ban on smoking.

I. It will lead to a reduction of preventable deaths in the United States.

According to the Center for Disease Control, cigarette smoking causes more than

480000 deaths each year in the United States. This means that one in every five deaths

is due to smoking. Smoking causes more deaths than HIV, illegal drug use, firearms-

related incidents, motor vehicle injuries, and alcohol use combined. Cigarette smoking

has caused more premature deaths than all the wars the US has fought. About 90% of

all cases of lung cancer are due to cigarette smoking. More women die of lung cancer
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every year than breast cancer. The risk of dying from smoking has increased fivefold in

the past ten years.

A lot of resources are spent each on sensitization campaigns on the negative impact of

smoking. There has been an effort to set up policies that restrict smoking in public

places such as workplaces and parks. However, the effect has been minimal. A total ban

on smoking means that people will no longer have access to cigarettes and means that

efforts will be redirected towards prevention. According to (Vuolo et al.,2016), the

denormalization of tobacco use has led to a significant decline in smoking. The Tobacco

control policies have seen an increase in excise duty on tobacco products. This means

tobacco is too expensive and is therefore out of reach to many people. The cost of

business is too high, and this forces tobacco companies to close down their operations.

II. The banning of smoking reduces the burden on the American healthcare system.

The cost associated with smoking-related illness in the United States is more than $300

billion each year. The direct medical costs are 225 billion. The government loses $150

billion due to lost productivity.

The American healthcare system is crippled because of the high incidence of patients

suffering from cardiovascular diseases and cancer, all related to smoking. These are long

terms diseases that have huge financial impacts on families.

Supporters of the tobacco companies argue that they generate revenue for the

government through the payment of taxes. The tobacco companies spent $7.62 billion

on advertising and promotional expenses in 2019. They also employ hundreds of people

in their supply chain. This may be true, but the long-term impact on the American
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economy is dire. An increase in the disease burden means that the government may not

have enough resources to focus on more productive projects. The best option is,

therefore, to ban smoking.

III. Banning smoking will reduce the incidence of cancer in the United States.

There are different forms of causes as a result of cigarette smoking. These include

pancreatic, lung, liver, oropharynx, kidney, larynx, bladder, blood, colon, and cervix. If

everyone abstained from smoking, one in every three cancer deaths would not occur.

References

Vuolo, M., Kelly, B. C., & Kadowaki, J. (2016). Independent and Interactive Effects of Smoking

Bans and Tobacco Taxes on a Cohort of US Young Adults. American journal of public

health, 106(2), 374–380. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302968

Jacob, L., Freyn, M., Kalder, M., Dinas, K., & Kostev, K. (2018). Impact of tobacco smoking on the

risk of developing 25 different cancers in the UK: a retrospective study of 422,010

patients followed for up to 30 years. Oncotarget, 9(25), 17420–17429.

https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.24724

DC. (2020, December 15). Health effects of cigarette smoking. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/e

ffects_cig_smoking/index.htm#cancer