Smoking

The paper “ A View of Smoking as a Health Hazard Initiated by Environmental Influences” is a pathetic example of a term paper on health sciences & medicine. This paper will discuss the factors associated with smoking. It will also talk about the freedom that an individual has with smoking to suit his or her own personality and will. It has also looked at the research that has come to the fore of late. Lastly, it has looked at the peer pressure that encourages people to take up smoking, even when they are very opposed to the same.

Smoking is inhalation of harmful gases, smoke, and other toxic materials, which are, in the best of times not inhaled or taken in by an individual. Smoking is the mixture of these poisonous yet soothing (for the body) gases and smoke that are inhaled through the breath. Vapors on the other hand also form a part of these mixtures at times, which adds to the poison effect of smoking. Thus, speaking from a viewpoint that is not very close to the habit of taking in smoke, this is a hazardous and potentially dangerous inclination. It might give rise to cancer, certain types of ulcers, throat and nasal problems as well as a host of other widespread illnesses. From an argumentative standpoint, smoking is a habit which is nothing more than providing a soothing effect to the body for a certain amount of time, but if see from a different angle altogether, its galvanizing aspect is cut short when people are made aware to the medical predicaments that lie behind this menace.

Smoking affects one’s health considerably and is therefore advised by doctors and practitioners to stay away from at all age levels. For chain smokers, it is better counseled to take some assistance from their doctors or their loved ones who can somehow or the other forbids them from continuing with the smoking routine. As discussed before, smoking can lead to different kinds of cancer, both in the throat as well as in the respiratory organs like the larynx and the lungs. This is a very dangerous ailment, one, which can easily force a patient into death, if proper care is not taken. Other serious problems, which can occur with the intake of smoke and in reality nicotine in the body, from time to time entail ulcers, certain types of cancer and lung-related predicaments as well as a number of other injuries, most common and threatening of which is the tissue breakage within the body.

The rate of smoking among adults as well as young ones has really taken a hike in the last few years with a consistent increase in the decade of 1990s. This goes to show that people are getting more and more hooked on to this menace which is not only harmful to them, both in the short term as well as in their coming lifetimes but also for the individuals who are around them. These “ other” people are in effect the real passive smokers, who are at a great loss due to another’s intimidation and inclination. The question, which arises here, is what makes people stick around with the notions of continuing smoking when they very well know the perils attached with it. Much research has been done in this pretext. (Sargent & Dalton, 2001)

Researchers have also found out from their argumentation that there is some mystery surrounding this whole concept. People are just not ready to give up smoking for the sake of it. They demand solid proof, thereby negating the already pre-set harmful and hazardous effects of smoking, known to all and sundry. Even when people are made aware of the same, they have certain reservations in giving up this practice. They prefer to take it slowly (by smoking a certain brand that has fewer amounts of nicotine in it or cutting down on the number of daily intakes of cigarettes) rather than completely abandoning and making their life a smoke-free zone. Certain studies have further elaborated the fact that the parents who are in strict opposition on the adoption of nicotine (cigarettes) within their child’s habits are quite successful in keeping away this peril from their wards. Adolescents who perceive that their parents would strongly disapprove of smoking are significantly less likely to smoke, thus clearly proving our hypothesis to the highest level.

Investigations have even estimated that people cannot curb their instincts when an urge arises in their body to light up a cigarette and start smoking. Keeping away requires a serious and conscientious effort on part of the conscience as well as the heart, but all said and done, the bottom line draws up in the principle that all is not that easy when it comes to calling it quits. Sometimes, there are many other reasons why people want to stick to their “ age-old” beliefs attached with inhaling smoke and thereby transferring toxic and poisonous gases as well as a host of other unwanted chemicals in their body. Peer smoking has been found out as one of the mainstays in keeping up to the smoking habit. People who are discouraged to smoke find solace when they see their near and dear ones doing the same, thus allowing themselves just about any rationale to follow upon and continue with the smoking room.