What you need to know:
- The reader discusses the need to stop smoking.
- Smoking is harmful to health and can cause many diseases.
Cigarettes are killers that travel in packs and a pipe, with sparks of ember and smoke spewing out one end, and a fool standing on the other end. The epistemology of loss that a child experiences when his or her parent passes away can cause despair among your loved ones.
Passive habits are built when trying to experiment with a dangerous thing like a cigarette. As small as a cigarette might seem, its side effects are quite the opposite. Over 480,000 deaths are caused every year, only in the US, because of smoking. Even when it comes to adolescents, some can be eminently naïve when they think that e-cigarettes are not harmful.
The sad truth is that these small sticks contain substances even more harmful than nicotine and can have similar side effects to that of a normal cigarette. Peer pressure is one of the leading causes of people picking up smoking. When your friends take a few puffs of a cigarette together, you may feel isolated and left out. You might also feel allured and intrigued by this new trend. You might feel compelled to try it. However, little did you know that this would turn into a passive addiction?
One day, after a year or so, you fall ill and you are perplexed as to why you did. What has happened to you? You’ve been eating healthy and exercising. “What is going on with my body?” you ask yourself. It is then when it strikes you that your sudden illness is because you started smoking. Well, say hello to macular degeneration, increased risks of a stroke, brain damage, increased blood pressure, reduction of activity in the brain and much more. So the next time you take a puff of that cigarette into your lungs, look into the eyes of your loved ones and imagine what would happen to them if something were to happen to you.
- The reader is a student based in Abu Dhabi
