According to the American Cancer Society, one in five deaths in the United States is a result of tobacco use. This statistic translates into over 400,000 smoking related deaths in the United States each year. From these two statistics alone it is obvious that smoking is bad. It is an epidemic that has been plaguing the United States since early settlers began growing the stinking weed. Earlier in the century people werent aware of the effects of tobacco, but now the facts speak for themselves and still several million people pick up the habit each year. Two million of these people are children, adolescents ages 11-17. Each day nearly 4,800 adolescents try smoking; of these, nearly 2,000 begin to smoke regularly. That adds up to almost two million teenagers annually.Even pro smoking groups like the NSA (National Smokers Alliance) and the ASA (American Smokers Alliance) agree that smoking is unhealthy. What the NSA and similar groups are concerned about is the individual smokers freedom. Pro smoking groups feel that with public smoking bans and similar legislation smokers rights are being abolished. Which is probably a reality that the modern smoker is going to have to face. However, Big Tobacco still insists that smoking is not bad for your health. Even though they see all the same statistics as the general public and probably many of their own, they still refuse to admit the downsides of smoking (apart from the warning the surgeon general forces them to print on each pack of cigarettes). This is for a good reason though, like all business it comes down to the bottom line, profits. If tobacco companies bashed their own product sales would plummet, and thats the last thing a business wants to see.The truth is, smoking claims over 400,000 lives per year in the United States alone. Almost half of all smokers die prematurely. The fact of the matter is that smoking can take up to 25 years off a persons life. It is a documen...
