Smoking Cigarettes Can Destroy You!

"Smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States" (PBS).

Teachers exit the middle schools and high schools in Fall River to see students smoking cigarettes. Have those children not heard about the consequences of smoking? Childhood is a time to be carefree, not a time to pick up a puny stick that is filled with deadly chemicals.

Many children in Fall River already know that smoking cigarettes is a waste of time. But just in case there are some who were never taught the truth about cigarettes, here are some alarming facts.

Ingredients in cigarettes:

1. Cigarette smoke has more than 4,000 chemicals and 43 of those chemicals cause cancer
2. Cigarettes are filled with nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT

Consequences of smoking cigarettes:

• Nicotine is one addictive ingredient in cigarettes and it increases cholesterol levels
• Smokers can develop Cardiovascular disease
• Smoking hardens the arteries
• Smoking causes emphysema (a lung disease), bronchitis, strokes, and cancer
• Smoking cigarettes is linked to chronic coughing, cancer of the mouth, gum disease, tooth decay, yellow teeth, bad breath and wrinkles

Because cigarette smoking is lethal, "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been given the federal power to implement countrywide rules that bans the sale and marketing of tobacco products to children and teenagers and provides restrictions in other areas of the tobacco and cigarette business."

Families in Fall River should explain to their children about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Some children actually turn to smoking because of problems at home, but that is still not a good reason to puff on a poisonous stick.

Parents need to inform their children that everyone has unpleasant circumstances in life, and that smoking will not solve anything. But if parents choose not to protect their children, or if children decide to rebel and befriend cigarettes, then hopefully the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can provide assistance to this perilous matter.

Additional facts:

• About 1500 children die each year because of fires in their homes that were caused by cigarettes.
• "The tobacco industry has the science to make a self-extinguishing cigarette, but they don't use it! Why?"
• people throw their cigarette butts on beaches and that causes pollution
• "Even if you don't smoke, just being around people who are smoking can cause health problems."