Health Awareness for Smokers: Quit Smoking for Your Loved Ones

Universities have recently been cracking down on smoking policies and frankly, it's about time. It's almost hard to believe that smoking is still such nationwide issue, what with the anti-smoking commercials and health education classes that have made us all aware of the countless negative health ramifications that are directly linked to the inhalation of cigarette fumes.

I have always hated smoking and all that it entails, both for sentimental as well as health reasons. Of these reasons, the most important one relates back to the fact that smoking took a number of years off my grandfather's life, ultimately resulting in his death a mere 2 years before I was born.

Smoking is an indisputably awful habit with zero foreseeable benefits. Sure, people choose to smoke because it's a supposed stress reliever. Or perhaps people choose to smoke for the social aspect of standing outside a dorm building in below freezing weather. Then, of course, there's always the influence of the media. "The tobacco industry spends billions of dollars each year to create and market ads that show smoking as an exciting, glamorous, and healthy adult activity." (www.cancer.org)

Despite these alluring benefits in which smoking has to offer, I would like to know how approximately 45 million Americans are able to dismiss the hard facts.

According to the American Cancer Society, smoking accounts for every 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. Each year, roughly 440,000 smokers die from the habit. According to www.cancer.org, "cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined." Kind of a daunting statistic if you ask me.

Another frightening fact is that smoking one cigarette takes approximately 6 minutes off an individual's life. Doesn't sound like much? Try doing the math if you frequently smoke a pack or two a day for the majority of your life. The American Cancer Society emphasizes the fact that male smokers lose an average of 13.2 years of life, while female smokers lose an average of 14.5 years of life. I don't know how the rest of the country feels, but I for one believe that life is too short as it is.

Death aside, smoking also puts individuals at a high risk for developing lung cancer, heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, stroke, pneumonia, asthma, and gum disease. Not to mention it's harmful to both our environment as well as our economy. "Smoking causes more than $167 billion each year in health-related costs, including the cost of lost productivity due to smoking." (www.cancer.org)

I realize that smoking is a highly addictive activity and that quitting is a lot easier said than done. It has been said that around 70% of smokers would like to quit, however only 5-10% are able to. Unless a smoker is truly committed to breaking the habit, trying to quit will oftentimes result in a futile attempt.

If I had it my way, smoking would be prohibited not only in universities, but in every public area in the country.

I do realize that some of these places, such as universities, are supposed to represent environments that are open to students' lifestyle choices. However, when I continuously get stuck walking behind a smoker on my way to class, breathing in clouds of disgusting smoke, I begin to wonder why universities would even want to promote this specific "freedom." Supporting the freedom to smoke is essentially supporting death. What happened to supporting the freedom of breathing clean air? Or the freedom of living long, happy, and healthy lives?

Serious changes need to be made in our country. Whether you choose to become a member of Colleges Against Cancer, or simply talk to a loved one about why it's crucial to end the habit before becoming another statistic, it all makes a difference. As informed, educated students, we should be working harder than ever to make this the outdated, once-problem that it should be.