Exigence: Smoking cigarettes

Audience: the class; they probably all know someone that did/do smoke cigarettes
Question: If cigarettes have caused such harm to human health, why is there not more
legislature being presented to combat this problem?

● We probably all know someone that smokes or has smoked cigarettes.

○ Cigarettes is a billion dollar business
○ Theres about 1.3 billion cigarette smokers in the world, with about
30.8 million adults in the US.
● Health benefits
○ Smoking cigarettes affects participants' health immensely.
○ Smoking kills up to half of its users. Killing 480 million people in the
US every year
■ Covid had 1 million deaths
○ Development of various types of cancer, lung disease, heart attacks,
and strokes increase significantly with the smoking of cigarettes
○ They even affect things like your nail growth and eye health. Which
most people don’t think of
○ Not to mention exposure to second hand smoke just 30 minutes a
day can cause the same amount of heart damage as an everyday
smoker

● Social implications
○ There is a large social stigma around smoking
○ The smell of cigarette smoke
■ Typically out more because they’re sick, increase health
insurance costs, can lead to increased cleaning costs
■ Areas are largely smoking free
● Quitting smoking
○ Just minutes after quitting your body can finally begin to regulate
again
○ After many years, your risk of developing various health risks, gets
cut in half.

You can see here the damages smoking cigarettes has on human health and
everyday life. 7 out of 10 smokers say they want to quit, so why aren't they?