Don't Smoke
A visual map explaining the health risk of smoking
Health Concerns
Smoking causes many forms of cancer in a people. Many of these kinds of cancer are deadly or life-changing. 50,000 people die each year from illnesses caused from smoking and many others are affected by secondhand smoking. To prevent further bad things from happening, there should be a large tax placed on cigarettes to discourage smokers.
Smoking Stories
On the CDC website there is a story about Jessica whose mom is a smoker, and Jessica's son suffers from asthma. The story states,"It’s not easy being a single parent, and for Jessica, it’s especially challenging. Not only is she a student, a bank employee, and a handball player who competes nationally, this 28-year-old also is the mother of a child with severe asthma. Jessica’s son, Aden, was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with asthma. Although Jessica never smoked, many of Aden’s attacks were triggered by exposure to secondhand smoke. Jessica’s mother, who watched Aden during the day while Jessica was at work, was a smoker. Unfortunately, Jessica didn’t know the connection between secondhand smoke exposure and asthma." From this story one could say that secondhand smoking can change a poor young man's life forever. So, if a higher tax were to be placed on cigarettes, less people would have to suffer like Aden.
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/stories/jessica.html
Final Statement
Smoking is a bad habit that must be ended. Many people die each year from smoking and many more will die if no one does anything to make a change. If a heavy tax was placed on cigarettes the amount of smoking in the USA would decrease which would give lives back to millions of people who are controlled by smoking. Thomas Glynn is director of cancer science and trends at the American Cancer Society and in an interview he states, "About 70% of smokers want to quit. And 50 million Americans already have. In fact, former smokers now outnumber the country's 44 million smokers"(Szabo 1). As you can see America is already on track to quit smoking altogether, so if this tax were to be imposed it might encourage every smoker in the US to quit.
Source of quote: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/23/tips-to-quit-smoking/4119333/