Discursive Essay The topic of whether or not smoking should be banned or not is discussed worldwide daily. In this essay I will outline the main points and discuss the two parties views of for and against in detail. I will start with the group who want to get smoking banned, then the group that want it to continue and then I will give my personal response. Firstly, smoking causes damage to your body. Most people do not realize this however.
It causes damage to your brain, arms and legs, eyes, lungs, heart and many more.The worst thing a cigarette can do is kill you. Smoking also causes many diseases such as heart disease, lung cancer and COPD. COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. It is a progressive disease that makes it harder to breathe. “Progressive” means that the disease gets worse over time.
COPD can cause coughing that produces mucus (a slimy substance in the throat), wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and other symptoms. Furthermore, non-smokers are also attacked by this poison due to passive smoke.Non-smokers are exposed to tobacco smoke everywhere and it is thought that the chemicals in tobacco smoke can also affect them. Tobacco smoke can lead to many ailments including sore eyes, wheezing and headaches. In addition to this being a nuisance, it is also classed as a health hazard. It increases the chance of lung cancer in a non-smoker by up to 30% and can also lead to heart disease. The reason for this is that the chemicals that are included in a cigarette are expelled out through the mainstream smoke.
Next, the expense of smoking is overwhelming. Over 80 billion dollars are spent on them in a single year. This money could have gone to better uses other than destroying one’s life. Once people start to smoke tobacco, they are affected by becoming addicted to nicotine as it is a drug, but they find it very hard to give it up.
It becomes a life support like water. Therefore they have to continue spending more money buying cigarettes to help aid their addiction.Cigarettes are heavily taxed which means that they are quite expensive to buy. If you smoke heavily and are continually buying cigarettes then the cost builds up to hundreds of pounds a year. I will now move on to the other side of the argument, and discuss the issues arisen with people saying there’s nothing wrong with smoking and that it should be allowed to continue.
Firstly, people seem to claim that smoking relieves stresses so they smoke after a hard day’s work.If they hurt themselves or become emotionally damaged, to them having a “fag” will help them surpass the physical and mental pain. Next, if smoking was suddenly to be banned, there would be a sudden rise in unemployment levels. So many people work in the supply and making of the common cigarette and to stop them would make the workers have to become unemployed and find a job where they have no skill.
The jobs included are; the farmers that supply the tobacco seed, the farmers that plant the seed, the factories that process the cigarette and many more.Lastly, while cigarettes are the only product that if used as intended will harm you, many other products on the market kill people and in far greater numbers. People do not need sports cars, they’re far more dangerous than an average car, but we allow them to be produced and driven because it’s not the government’s job to remove everything that is harmful from the average consumer.
The same goes for junk food, alcohol, and violent media.We have to assume that personal responsibility should play a role in any individual’s everyday life. In conclusion, I think the views of both parties are very strong, but I find myself in favour of the group that say smoking should stop. It is unfair to think of all the non-smokers that have their insides attacked by the smoke and the children whose mothers blow smoke right in front of them. I would like to see, not for smoking to be banned but more controlled, with specific areas where it is okay to have one.
