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Should smokers bear the responsibility for the health risks of cigarette smoking?

Results so far:

No
21% 148 votes Total: 691 votes
Yes
79% 543 votes

No one is forced to smoke cigarettes. Therefore, smokers must be willing to take full responsibility for the health risks associated with smoking. There are warnings are each pack and carton. Plus, there is no end of information available on the risks of smoking. If a smoker has a health problem, they only have themselves to blame.

NOT A SECRET

It's never been a big secret, especially in the past few decades that smoking isn't exactly great for your health. Honestly, if you inhale smoke from a burning building, it's bad for you, right? So why wouldn't purposely inhaling smoke from a cigarette be a health risk? All cigarette manufacturers provide warning labels on their product, so the risks are stated in black and white, or whatever colors the company uses.

CHOICE

Smokers choose to smoke. I can not emphasize the word "choose" enough. Before anyone says anything about second hand smoke, remember this article is about smokers themselves. So therefore, smoking is a choice. No one can force you to smoke a pack a day. This means that the smoker is the one responsible for the consequences of their actions.

ADVERTISING

Many smokers have blamed advertising for their smoking habit and therefore their bad health later on. If people did everything that commercials ask them to do, well, we don't really want to go there. Needless to say, the world would either be one giant hilarious commercial, or a spinning ball of chaos.

Advertisements are meant to persuade. After all, they are trying to sell a product. However, there hasn't been a single commercial that says you're going to die if you don't buy their product. Besides, a smoker still has to make the choice to get up, drive to the store, and request cigarettes from the cashier. I've never seen any type of advertisement that forces me to do anything, especially smoke.

COMMON SENSE

If you like to smoke, that's fine. But don't complain about your health as a result of your habit. If you don't like the risks, then use common sense. Stop the habit and you'll stop the consequences from getting any worse. The only person you can blame for your health is yourself. Think for a few seconds and realize that you made the choice. The only person responsible for the choice is the smoker. The only person responsible for the smoker's health is the smoker.

Smoking is a choice and always has been. Instead of blaming someone else for their actions, smokers need to take responsibility for any health related consequences. The choice to smoke is an adult decision; therefore, a smoker should be a adult and take responsibility for themselves.

Learn more about this author, C.D. Crowder.
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Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Should smokers bear the responsibility for the health risks of cigarette smoking?

Yes
  • 1 of 23

    by Richard Saare

    I wrote this article a couple of months ago and it has slipped from Number 1 to the bottom of the list. I am not sure if

    read more

  • 2 of 23

    by C.D. Crowder

    No one is forced to smoke cigarettes. Therefore, smokers must be willing to take full responsibility for the health risks

    read more

No
  • 1 of 15

    by Paola Fanutti

    Smokers are no more responsible for assuming their own health care risks than are the obese who suffer strokes, or tanners

    read more

  • 2 of 15

    by Hanna M. Jagow

    My husband died in 1998 from smoker-related cancer. First in his lungs, then his liver. He was all of 58 years old, and

    read more

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