Young people (under 18) should smoke. 440,000 Smokers die of various cancers or cardiovascular diseases each year. One in every five deaths is a result of smoking(Tobacco Addiction, 1). Most of them are under 18, and it’s not just smokers who get cancer and/or die. People who are constantly around smokers can die or become sick from second hand smoke.( Drug Facts|Tobacco). Each year approximately 3,000 non-smokers die of lung cancer from second-hand smoke.(Reality Check, 3) So smoking Tobacco is a decision that will not only harm you, but those around you.


Let’s start by going over the risks. If you are over 11 years old, you have probably heard of the risks of smoking Tobacco. When you smoke, you inhale nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, and a large amount of other known poisons. Nicotine is addictive. It creates all of the good feelings in cigarettes that make smokers addicted, which means it makes people want to have more tobacco. Tobacco can cause chronic bronchitis or other lung diseases, heart diseases, stroke, heart attack, and you can pop a blood vessel, or various cancers. For example, lung cancer is caused because the cigarette releases chemicals into the lungs that causes DNA damage and the inflammation of the lungs. That all promotes and produces tumors. That causes heavy breathing, because the lungs are inflamed, and you need healthy lungs to breathe. Lung disease is hard to detect at an early stage, and there is only a 15% survival rate (Foulds, 2008).Lung cancer can spread cancer around to other organs in the body. Cancer is very painful, which warrants lots of medication.

Young people may pick up smoking because “it’s their own decision or choice”, or they “can do what they want.” But in general, young people make decisions without thinking of how their decisions will affect them long- term. And smokers are not affected until later in life. That’s why it’s important to know the risks as children so you know the risks of smoking, and that you have a reason not to smoke.

Smoking can affect your appearance too. Smoking stains the teeth, and increases plaque buildup. Holding cigarettes can stain your skin as well. It stains the skin around your fingernails as well as the fingernails itself. The physical act of putting the cigarette in your mouth can cause damage to your appearance as well. According to Jonette Keri, MD from the University of Miami Miller School of medicine, smokers use certain muscles around their lips that causes them to have wrinkles above their lips that non-smokers do not. Wrinkles from smoking don’t only appear on the lip area, but around your whole body (How smoking affects your looks and life, 2010). And I know that people care about their appearance.

In conclusion, these are my reasons for why young people should not smoke. That’s why I don’t smoke, and encourage others not too. Hopefully, those who have read this essay are more knowledgeable about smoking, the effects and risks that it brings, and become more reluctant towards smoking. According to the information above, smoking can mess up your appearance, deteriorate your health, and hurt those around you. I don’t know why anybody would want to smoke.