Many people have no idea of the health hazards associated to smoking tobacco or being exposed to cigarette smoke. The issue here is not the smoke emanating from cigarettes but more importantly the content of the smoke. Cigarettes’ smoke is not just smoke as we know it but rather it contains a chemical substance that poses dangerous effects to human’s health. This is one aspect that has not been very well exposed leaving people under a danger that they barely know about. Smoking tobacco is a condition that not only affects its victims but also poses serious threats to other people who do not smoke but are exposed to the smoke circumstantially.
Determining the historical accounts on the use of tobacco that forms the major content of cigarettes is quit difficult. However, the use of tobacco is said to date back to 15 000 BC (Britton, 11). By then, tobacco and specifically by way of smoking was a ceremonial and ritual activity as well as for medicinal purposes. The first written account on tobacco was written by Christopher Columbus on his arrival to the American continent in October 1492(Britton, 11). By then, tobacco was used in distinct forms including chewing, smoking, it was inhaled as powder or even drunk as tea. The spread of tobacco began a few years after Columbus arrival with first countries to receive the plant being Spain and Portugal (Britton, 11). From there the spread was rampant throughout other countries.
The benefits accrued from the tobacco plant are like a drop in the see compared to the harm the plant causes. Nonetheless, it is not worth ignoring the fact that an estimated 1.3 billion people smokers exist in the world today. Most of these are addicted to the chemical compound found in tobacco leaves known in scientific terms as nicotine (Wipfli and Samet). Due to the high demand for tobacco there provides a need and hence tobacco becomes a substance of high economic value. Other than that the only other justifiable use of tobacco is as a stress reliever an assumption strongly disapproved by scientist.
With the minimum benefits of tobacco, tobacco has adverse effects on thee human health. Mainly, smoking tobacco is the common cause of diseases that affect the heart and the lungs. The danger of smoking is overwhelming since it is the root cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Livestrrong.com). Other diseases caused by smoking include heart attacks, stroke and cancer and specifically the lung cancer and cancer of the larynx and mouth. These are diseases that are causing deaths globally at an alarming rate. The problem is that these deaths can be averted but instead we have legalized the source of these deaths and made it so easily accessible. Smoking tobacco in other words is an alternative way of committing suicide.
In my candid opinion, we are not justified in using tobacco for whatever reasons whatsoever. Whether to relieve pain or stress or to calm blood pressure, the use of tobacco is more harmful than it is beneficial to the human health and the use of it should not only be discouraged but also banned and considered illegal at all costs. Clearly the substance negative impacts surpass its benefits compromising its feasibility. It is a big mistake and a misguided counsel to celebrate the economic gains accrued from the tobacco plant oblivious of the effects it has on the population.
Works Cited
Britton, John. Harm reduction in nicotine addiction helping people who can’t quit. London: Royal College of Physicians publishers, 2007. Print.
Livestrrong.com “The Negative Effects of Tobacco and Nicotine Addiction.” , 2010. Web.
Wipfli and Samet. “Global Economic and Health Benefits of Tobacco Control,” Nature.com, 2012. Web.