The Ultimate Cost

Why do so many people in the United States smoke cigarettes? Maybe its because they think it cool to smoke, but what is so cool about smelling bad, having yellow teeth, a constant cough, and health issues? In the U.S. alone more than 400,000 people die a year from a smoke related illness whether its lung cancer, or heart complications.

Cigarettes contain the following chemical compounds that are dangerous to your health: Nicotine, which is addictive and increases cholesterol levels, Carbon monoxide, which reduces the oxygen in your blood stream, and Tar, which is a carcinogen, and leads to cancer, Benzene which is know to cause leukemia, Butane, a lighter fluid, Ethanol which is used in antifreeze, Methanol, which is used for rocket fuel, Ammonia, which is found in most cleaning products, such as Windex, Acetone, used in fingernail polish remover, Cadmium, which is know to cause cancer and is found in car batteries, Arsenic, which is a poison, and Toluene, an industrial solvent(netdoctor.co.uk). These and many more make up about 400 toxic chemical out of 4000 different compounds found in cigarettes.

These toxic chemical may not kill you instantly, but they do lead to serious health issues such as cancer and heart complications. For example, lung cancer is one of the leading diseases that you can get from smoking. Not only can you get lung cancer but you can also get other types of cancer as well, such as: Leukemia, which affects the bone marrow and makes your bones brittle, laryngeal cancer, that attacks your voice box and you may have to get your voice box removed, and esophagus cancer, which affects your throat (ACS). On top of the risk of developing cancer, smoking increases your risk of, Atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is when the arties that carry the blood to the vital organs get narrower. With the blood vessels being narrower blood clots are more likely to form and can eventually lead to a heart attack or a stroke(AHA). Another smoke related illness is high blood pressure which affects how well the kidneys work and if they don't work properly the waste our body produces isn't taken care of. I think if is was me I would want to live a long and healthy life and those who want to can if they just stop smoking.

There are many approaches to stop smoking. Different ways work for different people, not everybody can quit the same