Ng 1 Damien Ng Mr.

Ludlow-Mattson English 114 12-5-12 Smoking Cigarettes It is well known that smoking cigarettes are bad for you, but what effects does it have on the body? What I know is, I used to smoke with my friends, but it wasnt necessarily cigarettes all the time. Although I did try it once or twice, I dont know if it has had a bad impact on my body. I have one family member who still smokes, but he is considerate about where he smokes and who is around. If there are children near him, he would either wait till they leave or smoke as far away as possible. I also know that smoking is bad for you in general and it can cause throat and lung cancer. There are many things I dont know about smoking cigarettes. For example, I dont know any other side effects it can give besides cancer. There also seems to be an endless list on the harmful effects smoking cigarettes can have on you and the people around you. The only reason why I want to do research on the effects smoking cigarettes has on the body is simply to gain knowledge about it. It would be interesting to find out what new information I can learn and how it will benefit me in the long run. If I find out that smoking cigarettes isnt as bad as many people say, then maybe I wouldnt mind doing it. Most people seem to live fine and live up to a reasonable age while smoking cigarettes, but then again, I dont know what is happening to their body internally. There could be many harmful side effects that I may end up learning and with all that information, I

Ng 2 might just never touch a cigarette ever again. This research will be very beneficial for me because it will make a tremendous impact on my life. If I end up learning nothing about the side effects of smoking then I might just get back into it, but if there are many lifethreatening consequences than I would know that I should never smoke in my life. I can also pass down the information I gain from this research and can either advocate or prevent smoking. I found many interesting facts on my quest to find out the impact smoking cigarettes has on your body. A lot of the information came from very reliable sources. There were a lot of good information on the effects and I gained a lot of statistical knowledge about smoking too. As I was going deeper into my research, I noticed a lot of the information are outdated and had the same information as most sites. It was hard to obtain new data, especially ones that are current. While doing my research, I came across a different type of smoking called secondhand smoking. I did a bit of research on this because its similar to smoking cigarettes except it is indirectly and usually involuntarily. Aside from learning about the effects of smoking, I decided to do a new research related to my topic. After learning about the effects smoking cigarettes has on the body, I thought it would be interesting to find out some ways to help prevent people from smoking and how I can help quitters quit smoking. During my research on prevention, I did not end up with much material because many of it did not answer my questions. I did collect a few pieces of information on preventing people from smoking and how to help a quitter smoke. A lot of the data that came up were mainly on how to help someone who is in the process of quitting. I didnt have a fond time trying to figure

Ng 3 out how to prevent someone from smoking because many of the results were similar to helping someone quit. I wouldnt say I failed on the second part of my research because in the end, I ended up with more knowledge than I had before. For starters, I learned that cigarettes are the number cause of preventable disease and death (Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking). I also found out that every year, nearly half a million people die due to smoking (Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking). Smoking causes many types of cancer such as lung, kidney, stomach, cervix, mouth, larynx and pharynx (Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking). I believe there are more, but I did not want to go further with the different types of cancer you can get. Smoking also increases your chances at certain health risks. You are more prone to developing lung cancer, stroke, and coronary heart disease (Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking). Besides from smoking cigarettes, I also learned that secondhand smoking is very harmful as well. I never would have thought that breathing in secondhand smoke could be as harmful as it is. It can cause many harmful effects on the body including respiratory illnesses such as asthma, skin rashes, heart diseases, and even cancer (Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Facts). It is very harmful towards the children and can cause ear infections, more frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory symptoms which involve coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath, and it also pose a great risk for infants (Secondhand Smoke (SHS) Facts). If a baby is exposed to second hand smoking, he or she is at a greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome, which is when a healthy baby dies from an unexplained death (Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)). In general, breathing in secondhand smoke has immediate harmful effects on the heart, blood and blood circulation

Ng 4 (Secondhand Smoke). It also increases your risk for lung cancer by 20-30%, which is awfully devastating because this is just from secondhand smoke and not directly from smoking (Secondhand Smoke). The statistics for secondhand smoking are very alarming. It is estimated that 46,000 deaths happen from people who are non-smokers and have a heart disease (Secondhand Smoke). I dont know if that is solely based on people who were exposed to secondhand smoke or in general. I also found out that in the U.S., the cost of extra medical care, illnesses, and death from secondhand smoke are over 10 billion dollars per year (Secondhand Smoke). For my second part of my research, I focused on how I could help prevent people from smoking cigarettes or at least how I can help someone quit. I learned that 9 out of 10 smokers start by the age of 18 (Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults). If you can stop a teenager from smoking until they are at the age of 26 then they most likely will never start (Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults). There are many solutions we can do to help prevent them from smoking. We can create a word where seeing people smoke or use tobacco products is the exception and not the norm (Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults). So, we can stop having singers and actors smoke cigarettes and show the kids that not everyone smokes and make it seem like only a small amount of people smoke. We can also raise cigarette prices, enforce laws that prohibit the sale of tobacco to children, further limit tobacco marketing, limit youth exposure to smoking, educate them about the harmful effects, and set a good example by encouraging them to avoid smoking and keeping cigarettes and lighters out of sight (Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults). I also

Ng 5 found several ways to help a friend or family member quit smoking. There are many things you can do to help a smoker quit, but the main points that caught my attention were respecting that the quitter is in charge, spending time with the quitter, making your home smoke free, and removing anything that reminds them of smoking (Helping a Smoker Quit: Dos and Donts). I think spending time with the quitter is the most important because if you can keep his or her mind off smoking then you are doing a good job. By keeping their mind off smoking cigarettes, you stop them from smoking, you prevent secondhand smoking and you save your health and his or her health from being jeopardized by all of the harmful effects.

Works Cited 1. Benjamin, R. (n.d.). Preventing tobacco use among youth and young adults. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2012/consumer_booklet/pdfs/cons umer.pdf 2. CDC. (2013, August 1). Health effects of cigarette smoking. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_ smoking/ 3. Clinic Staff, M. (2011, October 21). Sudden infant death syndrome (sids). Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sudden-infant-deathsyndrome/DS00145 4. Coronary artery disease. (2013, August 30). Retrieved from http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Co ronary-Artery-Disease---The-ABCs-of-CAD_UCM_436416_Article.jsp 5. Helping a smoker quit: Do's and don'ts. (2013, October 11). Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/healthy/stayawayfromtobacco/helping-a-smoker-quit 6. Secondhand smoke. (2012, October 12). Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/secondhand-smoke 7. Secondhand smoke(shs)facts. (2013, June 10). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/secondhand_smoke/genera l_facts/