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English 1301.083 Ivette Sharber October 15, 2003 “To smoke or not to smoke.” “Smoking or not smoking?” That is the question that most of us are familiar with when we go to a restaurant, even some fast food places. What would it happen if when people answers “smoking”, the waitresses would reply with something like this? “Do you know that smoking and second hand smoke exposure are hazardous to your health? It can be fatal. I am not sure what everyone else would answer, but I know what my answer would be. “Not smoking.”When people realized that they could smoke cigarettes, they did not believed that it could be harmful to their health. A lot of people smokes socially, others because they really enjoy it, and some use it as a calming element when they feel under a lot of stress; at school, at work, etcetera. I will try to share information that could be very important in making a decision, either to support or be against smoking. First I will try to explain all the negative things about smoking and second hand smoke; then I will explain it from the smokers point of view. I will start by telling how smoking and second hand smoke cut people’s life expectancy, and people who continue to smoke all their lives die from this habit. The National Cancer Institute and the report: “Health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke”based on the 1997 California Environmental Protection Agency agreed that: the chemicals that people are exposed to from this addictive habit include irritants and systemic toxicants, mutagens and carcinogens and developmental and reproductive toxicants. Over fifty compounds in tobacco are Ivette Sharber carcinogens. This causes lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, heart disease, asthma and brittle bone disease and in children is linked to Sudden Infant Dead Syndrome, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, middle ear infection, chronic respiratory symptoms, and low birth weight.
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