Die-hard cigarette users claim many benefits to smoking, some are the following:
- Peer group acceptance if peers smoke
- Performance enhancement in tasks
- Concentration
- Stress Relief
- Some smokers enjoy the taste
- Smoking is like a friend
There are issues with most of these perceived advantages. If a smoker attempts to change peer groups, they could find smoking to be a barrier to acceptance. The performance enhancement is minimal after the first few cigarettes a smoker has in their lifetime; from that point on, it is just a perception of enhancement based on the memory of those initial cigarettes. Weight loss and stress relief could be as effectively obtained by other, healthier means. Therefore the only valid advantage is if a smoker really enjoys the taste, but one has to wonder if they don’t enjoy the taste of the cigarette merely because they cannot taste anything else. Who would want to have a friend that will slowly but surely kill you!!
The disadvantages to smoking are far more numerous, and much harder to argue against, a sampling of them include:
- Lung Cancer
- Throat Cancer
- Mouth Cancer
- Other Cancers
- Emphysema
- COPD
- Asthma
- Decreased lung function
- Advanced aging
- Prohibitive cost
- Smoking is anti-social
- Smell
It is clear that the disadvantages of smoking far outweigh any perceived advantages. While there is a cost associated with quitting, over time the damage smoking had done to the body can reverse itself if a person ceases tobacco use. This puts that cost into perspective, especially when compared to the thousands of dollars spent every year on smoking. With all the disadvantages to continued smoking and no real advantages to it, isn’t it time you saved your health and your money by putting in the effort to become tobacco-free?