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| No | 22% | 162 votes | Total: 744 votes | |
| Yes | 78% | 582 votes |
No
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Add to FavoritesMy husband died in 1998 from smoker-related cancer. First in his lungs, then his liver. He was all of 58 years old, and had been smoking since he was 9. When he started smoking, the tobacco companies had the world convinced that nicotine was not addictive, and smoking made you a "Marlboro Man." He smoked Camels, and towards the end of his life, was not able to walk a mile for anything...
During the 60's, I worked in a Veteran's Hospital as a clerk, typing biopsy and autopsy reports for the pathology department. At that time the doctors did not have proof that many of their cases had been killed by smoking, but suspected it highly. The docs always emphasized in cancer reports that the person had smoked, how much and how long. These docs also suspected that all the "atherosclerosis" deaths were related to smoking, although they could not prove it scientifically at the time.
Since many people began smoking when false information was being perpetrated by television ads, magazine ads, and movie starlets and beefcakes, it is any wonder it was socially acceptable everywhere? Since people who made cigarettes were spiking every twentieth smoke with extra nicotine to increase addictive tolerance, knowing exactly what they were doing, it seems unreasonable to blame the victims.
Those who are convinced to light up now are still being deceived. Since the toll taken by nicotine and all the additives in cigarettes does not create an instant, clearly visible decline in health, young people buy the nonsense that blowing smoke is somehow sophisticated and "cool." Cigarette companies pander to the impulsiveness and short-sightedness of the young in order to continue to poison them. The current state of our economy and the multiple crises being dealt with by an over-burdened government have put this issue on a back burner, but it is my belief that at some point our collective conscience will emerge and those who sell our children for a buck will be held accountable.
Nearly every person who learned of my husband's death would ask "Did he smoke?" as if lung cancer was something he decided to try. The company he worked for where air quality was sometimes lethal was not open to lawsuit because they could blame the cancer on his smoking. How handy. In my own mind, I think it was about half and half. If he had not worked where he worked, having stopped smoking for the last six or seven years, he may still be alive, and his granddaughters would not be missing one of the most delightfully smitten grandfathers they could know.
I do not know how people who make, sell, or profit from the smoking industry can sleep at night, and I think that sooner or later, we as a people will get tired of the hype and the lies, and do something about it. Where can I sign up to join that movement?
Learn more about this author, Hanna M. Jagow.
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Yes
Everyone is entitled to be responsible for the consequences of his own doing. Like smokers, they are also responsible for whatever health problems they would soon acquire being smokers.
When a smoker starts smoking he already has the knowledge of the pros and cons of being a smoker. He knows that he would be taking the health risks being a smoker. Yet he still keep on smoking that piece of stick that gives cancer of the lungs and tuberculosis.
Smoking is a vice and therefore it shouldn't be tolerated within the body as it would only make someone sick. Cigarette contains nicotine which is bad for the health. And like any bad vice, smokers would be responsible for whatever health problems they acquire from this vice. No one must be responsible for the health risks that smoking gives to a smoker other than themselves. Smokers must be aware that smoking doesn't give them any positive effects only negative effects. And they should also take into consideration the people they are harming. Smokers and non-smokers have the same health risks in a smoke infested area. Even if you are not a smoker if you inhale the smoke from cigarettes you would also be at risk with your health. It is important for smokers to note that they are not only the ones being affected by this vice but they are affecting more people and also the environment.
Every smoker should take into consideration the disadvantages smoking does to life and the environment. Because while they are smoking and enjoying that piece of stick in their mouth, more life is being harmed and destroyed because of their doing. Although they are not directly hurting other people, the fact that they are contributing to the pollution that causes sickness is obvious.
Smokers should not blame anybody for whatever health problems they acquire from smoking. While it is true that advertising sometimes contribute to why some people go into smoking, smokers must not blame the manufacturers and advertisers of cigarette products. For one thing, nobody has put the smokers in that vice. It was their choice as individuals and they couldn't point a finger to anyone why they are having that health risk.
To be responsible people, they should not put themselves into a situation that would put them in trouble later on in their life. It is everyone's responsibility to take care of themselves and not to ruin it. While it is true that there is freedom from want, freedom must be well thought of in order for one to avoid being at risk in the future.
Smokers could only blame themselves for the wrong they have done. Because if they were responsible enough, they shouldn't have entered that vice that gave them the health risks in their life.
Learn more about this author, Felisa Daskeo.
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