some good reasons to stop smoking...

[radioboy]

According to the American Cancer Society, as soon.as you snuff out that last cigarette, your body will begin a series of physiological changes.

* Within 20 minutes: Blood pressure, body temperature, and pulse rate will drop to normal.

* Within eight hours: Smoker's breath disappears. Carbon monoxide level in blood drops, and oxygen level rises to normal.

* Within 24 hours: Chance of heart attack decreases.

* Within 48 hours: Nerve endings start to regroup. Ability to taste and smell improves.

* Within three days: Breathing is easier.

* Within two to three months: Circulation improves. Walking becomes easier. Lung capacity increases up to 30 percent.

* Within one to nine months: Sinus congestion and shortness of breath decrease. Cilia that sweep debris from your lungs grow back. Energy increases.

* Within one year: Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a person who smokes.

* Within two years: Heart attack risk drops to near normal.

* Within five years: Lung cancer death rate for an average former pack-a-day smoker decreases by almost half. Stroke risk is reduced. Risk of mouth, throat and esophageal cancer is half that of a smoker.

* Within 10 years: Lung cancer death rate is similar to that of a person who does not smoke. The pre-cancerous cells are replaced.

* Within 15 years: Risk of coronary heart disease is the same as for a person who has never smoked.

[John Veteran]

i've seen things like this before. honestly, i don't know why people even start smoking in the first place. everything about it is bad.

[rezza Veteran]

i've seen things like this before. honestly, i don't know why people even start smoking in the first place. everything about it is bad.

... apart from the fact that is is so damn nice when you light up that first cigarette of the day... MMmm... almost makes me want to start smoking again just thinking about it...

[uniacidz]

Yeh not good at all.

Scary to think about it.

[RadishTM Veteran]

Moved to Real World Issues

Radish.

[nosocks]

i know it's stupid to start smoking, but once you've started, it takes more than an article like that to stop you.

[John Veteran]

... apart from the fact that is is so damn nice when you light up that first cigarette of the day... MMmm... almost makes me want to start smoking again just thinking about it...

what's so nice about it? i really wanna know. i don't mind people who smoke, but please, don't smoke around me. i can't stand the smell. literally, i'll walk out of a restaurant if there is too much smoke. and it makes you look disgusting too. :x imagine that emote as black :o :x

i'm just saying that i think the smell of smoke is overwhelming, i don't know how anyone could think it's "cool"

Edited June 9, 2003 by gameguy

[FaRSightxc2]

Smoking is pointless. (This does not include one evey now and again on a friday night or the occational one or two a month, but as a nessesity where you begin to smoke more than one everyday). It is a waste of time, money and effort and it eventually leads to severe health problems, as well as social problems from people who dispise the smell. The niccotine begins to rule your life, and you are driven by the simple desire just to get the nicotine into your blood stream by smoking. The daily routine is ruined, and why? Because you are addicted to a substance you do not need, and in the process other elements within the cigarette are slowly killing you.

I feel very passionately about this subject - my best mates dad died from a smoking-related cancer about this time last year, and my mate has not been the same without him. His death hads effected us both. An early death for an addiction? Because, lets face it, its not the *** that is craved, it is the addictive properties of nicotine which the smoker desires. I can't stress this enough - smoking is not good for you in any way whatsoever. Some people say it calms them. This is because they are made uncalm because they become so reliant on nicotine to calm them down that their body chemicals go out of balance. This leads to the need for nicotine to combat the imbalance and so it does have a claming effect on the body. On a non-smoker no nicotine is required, because there is chemical balance. So the smoking causes the need for a calming effect in the first place, thus making argument is void - if you didn't smoke in the first place there would be no need to be calmed by the nicotine.

Smoking Kills.

[aem4162]

i know it's stupid to start smoking, but once you've started, it takes more than an article like that to stop you.

true....sometimes it means having your dr tell you you won't be around in a year or 2

[Valkyre]

While I agree that smoking is pretty pointless and a giant waste of everything in general, I don't condemn people who smoke. Whatever happened to the war on drugs? The war on alcohol? Oh that's right, they gave up and everyone is attacking smokers now.

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

which is **^)(ing ridiculous

[Valkyre]

Honestly, out of cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol, smoking is hardly the worst.

[kjordan2001]

While I agree that smoking is pretty pointless and a giant waste of everything in general, I don't condemn people who smoke. Whatever happened to the war on drugs? The war on alcohol? Oh that's right, they gave up and everyone is attacking smokers now.

Drugs'll be tough to get rid of unless borders are locked down. We've seen what happens if alcohol is outlawed, they just drink more. Alcohol isn't bad unless you drink a ton and get alcohol poisoning or if you're a dumbass and drive while drunk. At least with smoking you can turn em on those big bad cigarette people and scare the **** out of em with what it does to them.

[Blaise Veteran]

I've said this before in another thread about this, but what the hell.

My Father smoked for thirty years, I quit the day he was diagnosed with throat cancer. I went cold turkey, just threw em in the trash and have never lit up since.

He's still in and out of Sloane-Kettering in NYC. Though for some its impossibly hard.

This past fall my Father had his voice box removed after another re-occurence of his cancer and I went out front of the hospital to keep my idiot still smoking relatives company, when to my absolute horror..and I mean that..it really freaked me out.

This man standing just outside the door in a hospital gown and holding on to a portable IV stand was taking a cigarette and inserting it into his trachea tube, he was literaly f**king smoking after they had cut open his throat.

I lost it a tad..started yelling at my family members as to how could they stand outside a Cancer center smoking and went back inside.

Everytime I get the urge to light up, it's not the image of my Dad in post-op swollen and half dead.

It's that old man; still a slave to his habit, still feeding the cancer that he had just had cut out.

Nowadays with everything we know...you smoke...your a freaking idiot.

Period.

[John Veteran]

While I agree that smoking is pretty pointless and a giant waste of everything in general, I don't condemn people who smoke. Whatever happened to the war on drugs? The war on alcohol? Oh that's right, they gave up and everyone is attacking smokers now.

i myself am still against drugs, alcohol, and smoking. i'm one person who never has, and plans to never do, any of these things.

Honestly, out of cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol, smoking is hardly the worst.

that depends. smoking can be considered the worst because of what it does to your appearance, or that it kills you slowly. none of these three are good, but if i had to pick one that wasn't as bad as the others, i'd probably say alcohol. sure; you get drunk and might get in a dangerous situation (car accident or something) but most people who drink are usually fine the next day. drugs are by far the worst of the three IMO. it's sad too, i know a lot of people who just do drugs because they like getting high or they think hallucinations are cool. that's f*cked up if you ask me. :crazy:

oh, btw. i think this is hard to face, but an excellent point:

Everytime I get the urge to light up, it's not the image of my Dad in post-op swollen and half dead.

It's that old man; still a slave to his habit, still feeding the cancer that he had just had cut out.

Nowadays with everything we know...you smoke...your a freaking idiot.

Period. 

[nosocks]

true....sometimes it means having your dr tell you you won't be around in a year or 2

that would be enough to make me stop.

[username]

the big C, Cancer, if you have ever seen somebody die of it

[Ravager]

Honestly, out of cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol, smoking is hardly the worst.

How can it be hardly the worst?

What do you say when you see a person injecting himself with a needle? Probably something like, "Holy crap..."

What do you say when you see a person walking around public totally hammered? Probably something like, "Whoa... what an idiot!"

What do you say when you see a person smoking? Probably nothing!

Smoking is so socially accepted that it's, in my opinion, worse than drugs or alcohol.

Of course, drugs absolutely kills you and makes you end up on the street, but can you buy cocaine at your nearest corner store? If you can, you probably live in a really weird neighborhood. Oh, yea, but you can buy liquor at a corner store.

So you're standing in public, and pull out a cigarette, something that slowly kills you and and those around you (Ever heard of second-hand smoke?)

No one cares, no one says anything. But pull out a bottle of beer and start drinking it outside, well... that's illegal!

But why not smoking? Compared to drugs and alcohol, smoking is hardly regulated.

So there you go. You have can buy "death" at a local cornerstore, smoke "death" in public (as well as share the second-hand smoke with other people), and "death" is hardly regulated. Only now are you starting to see smoking being banned in a few places.

So think again when you say smoking's the least harmful.

[Diata]

sad part is most people are aware of the fact that smoking kills them but still do it

[John Veteran]

second hand smoke is something i don't tolerate. if you want to smoke, go outside. also, when i'm deciding which restaurant to go to, whether or not they have a smoking section is probably the most important thing, other than what type of food they have. and maybe price too, but i don't go to too many expensive restaurants anyway.

[kryptonik]

Smoking is bad, and I strongly doubt that I will ever become addicted, but some people actually want to die early. :cry:

[Valkyre]

How can it be hardly the worst?

What do you say when you see a person injecting himself with a needle? Probably something like, "Holy crap..."

What do you say when you see a person walking around public totally hammered? Probably something like, "Whoa... what an idiot!"

What do you say when you see a person smoking? Probably nothing!

Smoking is so socially accepted that it's, in my opinion, worse than drugs or alcohol.

Of course, drugs absolutely kills you and makes you end up on the street, but can you buy cocaine at your nearest corner store? If you can, you probably live in a really weird neighborhood. Oh, yea, but you can buy liquor at a corner store.

So you're standing in public, and pull out a cigarette, something that slowly kills you and and those around you (Ever heard of second-hand smoke?)

No one cares, no one says anything. But pull out a bottle of beer and start drinking it outside, well... that's illegal!

But why not smoking? Compared to drugs and alcohol, smoking is hardly regulated.

So there you go. You have can buy "death" at a local cornerstore, smoke "death" in public (as well as share the second-hand smoke with other people), and "death" is hardly regulated. Only now are you starting to see smoking being banned in a few places.

So think again when you say smoking's the least harmful.

It IS the least harmful. You can try to weave interesting little "facts" to make it seem wrose, but it isn't. Smoking won't kill you any faster then living in a place with heavy air polution.

[kryptonik]

Smoking is not the worst thing you can do. Herione is, and I would not only gasp if I saw someone doing it, but I would wonder how stupid they are and try to knock some sense into them. :wacko:

If you want to smoke, then smoke...just do it away form others.

[John Veteran]

It IS the least harmful. You can try to weave interesting little "facts" to make it seem wrose, but it isn't. Smoking won't kill you any faster then living in a place with heavy air polution.

oh you seriously better not believe that. do you know how many chemicals are in cigarettes? far more than what comes out of any smoke stack...

[Valkyre]

"Smoking kills". Yeah, so does living until to DIE NATURALLY.

Your all going to die, smoking has nothing to do with making you die, you has to do with hurrying up the process. Oh, that's if you aren't shot, stabbed, hung, beaten to death with a baseball bat, drown, commit suicide, get run over by a car, become aphyxiated, and the other 100 billion ways you could die prematurly.

People worry about the most trival ****. Stop worrying about the guy next to you smoking and watch out for that car coming around the corner at a fast speed.