Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

As I explain in my last blog entry, I missed last weeks lecture and from my understanding it was indeed centred around smoking. So here I am giving my two cents of the matter of smoking. I am a non smoker myself and come from a family of smokers. Both my parents and brother smoke and have done all my life. My brother started smoking in his teens, he was a typical rebel hanging out with the wrong crowds and started secretly smoking. I have no doubt in the fact that he was only trying to appear "cool" to his friends but sadly it got him addicted and now he is a 27 year old successful business man who is no longer a teen hanging around on streets up to no good and definitly regrets starting. When I was younger my parents suspected he smoked and I remember when they found a cigarette in his coat pocket and went mad at him and he said "but you both smoke" and my mom said "yes and I know we're not big or clever because we're addicted and can't stop!" I always used to think my mom was being hypocritical in the matter because she couldnt possibly have a go at my brother when she was smoking 20 a day herself surely. However, now that I'm older I know that from what ive seen it is hard to give up. Lots of people say that children are more likely to smoke if they're parents do, which fair enough in many cases probably is true but I know that from being younger and seeing my parents smoke and say things to me like "dont you ever start smoking because its addictive and very dangerous" put the fear of God in me. I had the idea that if you smoked one you could drop down dead at that very moment. I never once idolised my parents smoking and wanted to do it myself because I knew that she wasnt proud of what she did so I saw it as something out of her control. Of course later on in life I dabbled in cigarettes but that was purely down the the people I was friends with and a matter of me wanting to be "cool" and daring. Right now I can see both sides to the arguement. I think its easy to get into smoking because of the social factor and the fact that smoking one cigarette wont kill you there and then so people dont think of it as a dangerous thing, until its too late of cause. Its when you think oh just smoking one here and there wont do any harm im not going to get cancer just smoking this one. But then one becomes two and then three and so on until they cant stop.

One thing that does really bother me is parents who smoke around there children, as in the same room because that just isnt fair. A baby can't leave the room when a parent is smoking and neither can a young child when in the care of that adult. I dont think its fair to impose that on someone who doesnt smoke. Passive smoking does cause harm and most people wouldnt think it because they're not inhaling it directly. I found an article on passive smoking in the BBC website and its interesting to see what the risks are. 'BBC Passive smoking'

So when talking about the smoking ban in public places I think will be beneficial but I do also sympathise with people who do smoke and have tried or are trying to quit and finding it hard.

I think the smoking campaigns in the past have proven to be effective such as the advert showing the gooey fatty stuff being squeezed out of an artery which doesnt just tell you but shows you the damage done by smoking. I think people need to see the damage face on in order for it to hit home and make them think

The more disturbing the advert for smoking the bigger impact it will make and these adverts and posters need to be made world wide and shown everywhere for people to take notice. I person needs to make the decision themselves to stop smoking.