Breathe Happy

Arsenic kills if you swallow it. Tobacco kills if you inhale it.

Cough! Cough! Are you inhaling your last breath

Remember, if you're smoking, you can pack up your health.  If you're not smoking, you are backing up your health. Smokers are now funneled into a zoo-like partition from the rest of society. But still, they continue with it. People get addicted to tobacco products because they contain nicotine, which is again an addictive substance.

Smoking is one of the worst things that you can do to your body. When you started smoking for the first time, (often just to look cool), you likely went into coughing it. You know why? Because your body was warning you to stop now, because you were feeding it with poisons. The lucky ones, who understood the warning, stopped it there and then. But others continued with it. They are not getting the point that they are forcing their body to inhale poison. They don’t even realize the harm they are causing to their bodies.

Nicotine resembles a catalyst. It keeps your mind confused on the real problem here: brainwashing. The chemical addiction of cigarettes can be easy to cope with. But brainwashing is tough to cope with. You are brainwashed to an extent when you are addicted to big tobacco. You find yourself attracted to the colorful advertisements to some degree, but you are not able to see that each and every packet of cigarettes has a little quote always written on it’s packet: “Smoking is harmful for your health.”

Cigarette are a most harmful substance, and inhaling that substance could lead directly to your last breath. Why begin the countdown to the end of your precious life? Why didn't you follow the "Be smart. Don't start," advice?

A bunch of words can’t always change young minds.  Its tough to achieve it all alone. You may need different types of supports, may be through counseling or a prescribing medication. “Please keep smoking, our planet is overcrowded.” Don’t let such sayings come true. It’s all in your hands. 

To stop smoking:

1. DELAY the FIRST
2. DEFER the SECOND
3. DESIST the THIRD
4. AVOID the FOURTH
5. PAUSE the FIFTH
6. SKIP the SIXTH
7. POSTPONE the SEVENTH
8. FLING-AWAY the EIGHTH
9. EVADE the NINTH. (And now put a big stop before the tenth.)
10. Say Goodbye to smoking and tobacco.

Most everyone knows that smokers live shorter lives, an average of 8 years shorter. But have you ever thought about how much time smoking takes up during your life? We live in a "time is money" culture. Not that that's how it should be, but people often put that kind of value on time…and wish they had more of it. A smoker might not even realize how much valuable time is taken up by this habit.

There's the mental energy and time wasted by thinking about when you'll be able to take a break, or step outside, or go for a drive, to have that smoke. There's the time spent worrying about the harm it's doing to you (and possibly to others you love). There's the time spent driving to the convenience store to buy smokes, or driving around to find a place to buy them, or thinking about where to buy them. Time wasted making sure one has matches, lighters, and cigs, and maybe something to drink with it or something to ash in.

Then there's the time wasted by the smoker that the non-smoker doesn't even have to worry about, such as the extra time it takes to heal from a cold or recover from an illness, because smokers take longer to get well after being ill, not to mention the extra time it takes to catch up at work because of being sick longer. There's more time spent at doctor's visits talking about smoking problems, and more time spent going to doctors due to more illness, and that's just when facing run-of-the-mill illnesses, we're not even talking yet about the time spent dealing with serious illnesses that can occur after years of heavy smoking such as cancer, emphysema, or loss of limbs, for example. There's also the extra time the smoker needs to sleep, to make up for the poor sleep s/he gets, since smoking affects sleep negatively.

There's the time spent cleaning up from the habit–cleaning ash trays, throwing away empty packs, more house cleaning if you actually look at the fact of the gray film and odor that smoking leaves on the walls, furniture, and every object in the home if smoking occurs inside.

Finally, there's the time spent actually smoking. It all adds up to a big fat waste of time. Your life is too precious, and time on this Earth too short and special, to waste one more moment of it on this addictive drug. Take the first step, do whatever you can, or keep doing what you are doing, to free yourself from the clutches of this time-sucking addiction.

In 2012 there were an estimated 58.5 million U.S. residents that were smokers. Second hand smoke kills 53,800 non smokers annually. This makes it the third leading cause of preventable death in America.

Second hand smoke (SHS), contains over 4,000 chemical compounds, two hundred known poisons, and sixty carcinogens, some of which include: Lead, nickel, benzene, formaldehyde, chromium, cyanide, ethylene oxide, arsenic, polonium and carbon monoxide. These dangerous particles can linger in the air for hours, and smoke lowers the amount of oxygen in the blood. Residue left on a smoker's clothing can cause health problems, especially in children.

If a person spends more than two hours in a room with a an individual smoking, the non-smoker inhales the equivalent of four cigarettes. The immediate health effects of SHS are coughing, nausea, headache, eye irritation, sore throat, dizziness, and difficulty in breathing. For those already suffering from asthma or other respitory disorders, this can be dangerous.

In adults, second hand smoke can trigger asthma and bronchitis, and is a known risk factor for lung cancer. It increases the risk of heart attacks, and is also a known risk factor for various  other types of cancer.

Children who live with smokers are more apt to develop middle ear and sinus infections. SHS is associated with 413 SIDS deaths in the US annually.

Exposure to SHS as a child is associated with a increased risk of developing Atopic dermatitis which is a chronic nflammation of the skin. A higher risk of tooth decay has also been associated with passive tobacco smoking.  Children who grow up around smokers have smaller lungs and decreased lung function than that of a child living in a non-smoking home. Children who are consistently exposed to SHS tend to develop childhood asthma.

When children are forced to be in proximity of SHS, such diseases as cystic fibrosis, bronchitis, and even pneumonia are worsened. These conditions are very difficult for small children to tolerate.  Middle ear infections are common in children inhaling second hand smoke. The smoke irritates the Eustachian tube, which connects the back of the nose to the middle ear. This causes fluid retention and can be very painful for the child. If diagnosed right away, these infections can be easily cured, but if treatment is delayed, it can lead to permanent reduction in hearing.

The possibility of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) increases when a mother smokes. Lower birth weight, as well as conditions such as cleft lip and palate are seen in instances of maternal smoking.

300,000 cases of toddlers and infants with respiratory diseases are reported yearly. Much of this could be avoided if parents were to think about the affects of their smoking on children.

Revised and updated from original posting @ Knoji.com