Fact: Smoking Kills

FACT: Smoking Kills

Smoking kills over 400,000 people a year—that’s more than AIDS, murder, suicide, drug overdose, and fires combined. One of the most harmful effects smoking can have on someone is the physical damage it does to the body. Smoking causes cancer in many vital organs and places of the body.

HEART	Smoking triples your rate of dying from heart disease
LUNGS	Smoking is involved in 85% of all lung cancer victims
MOUTH	Smoking can cause cancer of the lips, tongue, larynx, and esophagus

Who Else Does Smoking Effect?

Passive, or second hand smoke, occurs when the exhaled smoke from one person’s cigarette is inhaled by other people. Second hand smoke is the number one reason why the government has introduced smoking bans. Some states have passed laws that prevent smoking in most public places including bars, restaurants, and workplaces.

Number of Deaths from Passive Smoke Per Year	53,000
Risk of Getting Cancer from Marrying a Smoker	Double that of a non smoker

How Can I Quit?

Smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death. There are many different types of over the counter drugs including pills, gum, and patches that can slowly help you quit.

Within 24 Hours of Quitting	You decrease your risk of sudden heart attack
Within 1 Year of Quitting	Risk of heart disease is cut in half
Within 5 Years of Quitting	Chances of dying from lung cancer decrease 50%
Within 10 Years of Quitting	Precancerous cells return to normal and your risk of most cancers becomes similar to that of a nonsmoker
Within 15 Years of Quitting	Risk of heart disease is that of a nonsmoker

Remember: It’s Never Too Late To Stop Smoking

Smoking Memo

Prevent Smoking Early

Introduction

One of the most dangerous habits anyone can have is smoking. For most adults this habit begins at a young age, usually during adolescence. According to a recent study, over 90% of students who smoke cigarettes in college will continue to smoke up to four years after graduating. If we can prevent someone from smoking during adolescence, it’s likely they won’t smoke when they’re older.

Physical Danger

According to Quit Smoking Support, smoking kills over 400,000 people a year—that’s more than AIDS, murder, suicide, drug overdose, and fires combined. One of the most harmful effects smoking can have on someone is the physical damage it does to the body. Smoking can damage and cause cancer in many vital organs and places of the body. Smoking triples your rate of dying from heart disease. It is also involved in 85% of all lung cancer victims. Smoking causes cancer of the lips, tongue, mouth, larynx, esophagus, pelvis, stomach and cervix. Bottom line: Smoking has the potential to cause serious injury or death.

Dependence

Smoking causes addiction. There are over 1000 chemicals in each cigarette, but it is mainly nicotine that is most responsible for addiction. Some people addicted to cigarettes claim they only smoke them for the “pleasurable effect.” In actuality, that “pleasurable effect” is the body’s relief of nicotine withdrawal. Nicotine stimulates the central nervous system, which is a characteristic it shares with drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Impact on society

Second hand smoke occurs when the exhaled smoke from one person’s cigarette is inhaled by other people. It is estimated that over 53,000 people die each year from second hand smoke. Second hand smoke is the number one reason why the government has introduced smoking bans. Some states have passed laws that prevent smoking in most public places including bars, restaurants, and workplaces. Some smokers responded defensively to these bans claiming that they not only place limitations on where they can smoke, but also on their rights as citizens.

Prevention

Within the context of prevention, it’s important for a teenager to understand why some people start smoking in the first place.

What is smoking the product of?

· A Teenager’s Lifestyle— Smoking can sometimes spawn from stress. It’s important to take time and relax every once in a while and understand that cigarettes are not the answer to stress. If you feel like you need a cigarette at the end of each day you may want to contact a doctor immediately.

· Peer Pressure— If your friends or the people around you smoke, you're more likely to start smoking yourself. In fact, nonsmokers who marry smokers are twice as likely to get cancer

· Social Framework— If you start smoking it's also important to take a look at where you're smoking. Some people claim that they only smoke at parties. It’s important to understand that smoking only at parties can be just as dangerous as only smoking when you’re stressed.

How Do I Quit?

There are many different types of over the counter drugs including pills, gum, and patches that can slowly help you stop smoking. Some people have even tried hypnosis. There are also groups and clinics you can contact to help quit smoking.

The most important thing to remember is it’s never too late to start quitting! After one year of quitting your risk of heart disease is already cut in half, after five years of quitting you risk of lung cancer is already cut in half, and after 15 years of quitting your risk of heart disease is that of a nonsmoker.

Smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death. It is often the case that we are products of our own surroundings. For most of us, college will be the time when we leave our childhood surroundings and are forced to adapt to new ones. From these new surroundings we will also be forced to adapt to and create new habits. By not only taking a look at but also by identifying our surroundings (do your friends smoke, do you smoke at parties?) you can prevent smoking as part of your lifestyle before it even starts.

post 3 intro

According to our text book Risk Communication by Regina Lundgren, care communication should be used for situations in which the risk is no longer in doubt. As far as smoking goes, the dangers have already been established. The purpose then, following the care communication category, is to present information on smoking to college students to both encourage less risky behavior to increase their awareness.

Under the care communication category I first wanted to establish an audience. The audience spectrum for smoking can be extremely broad. Arguably the spectrum can start from the time a person, presumably a teenager, takes a drag of their first cigarette all the way up to an eighty year old who has been smoking for years.

The purpose of this blog is to create an awareness about smoking at an early age so you can prevent it before it even starts. Therefore, my audience includes young adults, more specifically college students, who have just started smoking or have yet to start.

Care communication is used to help change behavior, here we're doing that and trying to prevent it. According to a recent study, over 90% off students who smoke cigarettes in college will continue to smoke up to at least four years after graduating. By informing college students the risks of smoking they may be able to stop smoking early or prevent it all together.

There are a number of different ways identify bad smoking habits. Some of these include asking yourself questions like "Where am I smoking?", "Who am I smoking with?", "Am I smoking because I'm stressed?" Statistics can also be a powerful tool in preventing smoking.

Care communication is the best category for this topic. Since we already have an abundance of statistical data, we can take that date and use care communication as the tool for preventing smoking.

Remember, Smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death.

Stop Smoking Before It Happens

I've decided to keep my topic on smoking among college students. According to a recent study, over 90 percent of students who smoke cigarettes in college will continue to smoke up to at least four years after graduating. My goal is to inform college students the dangers of smoking before they can start.

The most harmful effect smoking can have is the physical damage it does to the body. Smoking can damage and help aid cancer in many different organs and places in the body. It also has the potential to cause death.

Smoking can also have a serious effect on its surroundings. The government has issued a number of restraints on who can and can't smoke and where you can and can't smoke. Some states have even passed laws banishing smoking in public places, including restaurants and bars. Smoking also has a negative impact on your health care.

Smoking means addiction. There are over 1000 chemicals in each cigarette but it is mainly nicotine that is responsible for addiction. Nicotine stimulates the nervous system--a characteristic it shares with drugs like cocaine and heroine.

I want my audience to be someone who is still shaping their identity. To help with prevention I need to inform people why people smoke and what it is a product of.
1.) Your personality- if you have an "addictive" personality, you're more likely to become addicted to cigarettes.
2.) Peer pressure- if you're friends or the people around you smoke, you're more likely to start smoking yourself.
3.) Social Framework- if you start smoking it's important to take a look at where/when/why you're smoking. Some questions to ask yourself are:
a. are you smoking because you're stressed out?
b. do you only smoke at parties or while drinking?
c. do you feel like you need a cigarette at the end of each day?
By answering just these to questions you may be able to identify if you are addicted or are becoming addicted to cigarettes.

By taking a look at and identifying your surroundings you may be able to prevent smoking as a part of your lifestyle before it can even start.

Welcome

I’ve always considered myself a well rounded person (both academically and socially) so it took me till the end of my sophomore year to decide on a history major. I was never really a history buff in high school, but I slowly found out it was the only major at school I was able to enjoy. Some people find history completely boring, however if you look close enough it’s easy to see that history is in everything (including issues, concerns and world events) around us.

The first concern I would like to not only talk about but learn more about are the conflicts going on in the Middle East. That includes (but certainly isn’t limited to) the War on Terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It’s hard to think about how globalized and culturally assimilated the United States is (and how fortunate we are) when the Arab nations and Israel are still fighting for the same thing they’ve been fighting over for thousands of years: their land or “olive trees”; more specifically their history.

I hate jumping on bandwagons, and I admit I knew virtually nothing about this until seeing Al Gore’s movie, but after seeing An Inconvenient Truth, it’s hard not to recognize global warming as literally a GLOBAL problem. We are fortunate to live in the free world we do today (at least in the US), and it only got that way because the people before us left it that way. Although my personal volunteering resume isn’t something to brag about, I am of the belief that our generation shouldn’t leave the world the same as how we found it, but better. To me denying global warming is just as insane as the people who tried to deny the Holocaust. Hopefully this issue will be looked into even further in the future.

The last issue I’m concerned about is the genocide that STILL goes on today. The first that come to mind are the conflicts in Darfur between the Janjaweed military and the fighting rebel groups, and the conflict in Rwanda (which President Clinton did apologize for not responding to their situation in a timely manner.) It’s also hard to believe that the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua happened less than forty years ago.

I think all of these issues are important. Our country is already so well put together (relatively speaking) that it’s easy to forget and/or ignore what’s going on around us in the world. I remember when I heard about the Virginia Tech shooting I got on Yahoo news to read any information I could. My eyes were immediately attracted to bright about bold letters which stated that seventeen people, and possibly more were dead. Underneath that in a much, much smaller font, was a story about how last night in Baghdad, while I was sleeping or watching sportscenter, 138 men, women, and children had died. 138.