The Harm Of Cigarettes

Dillon Wosyluk

Period 2

Persuasive speech

The Harm of Cigarettes

I stand here before you not as a stranger, but as man trying to make a difference. I

am here today to talk to my public about the tobacco industry, and their death sticks,

cigarettes. Cigarettes are the single most preventable cause of disease and death.

cigarettes do absolutely no good for our society. Some argue that America make a lot of

money off of tobacco use, but this is false. The truth is that it costs America fifty billion

dollars a year annually in increased healthcare costs and lost productivity, that and four

hundred lives of course. I don't see how this is worth it, but who am I to the tobacco

industry? In their eyes I'm just another whinny protester that is trying to make them lose

money.

The tobacco industries have said it themselves that nicotine is just as addictive

than heroine or cocaine, which are to very destructive drugs. Why does this over usage of

tobacco products exist if we know how addictive and dangerous it is to smoke cigarettes?

Because of how many people are already addicted and have no intentions of quitting.

Most of the time it is not even adults making the decision to smoke. Sixty percent of

smokers start at age 14 and ninety percent of them are addicted to cigarettes at age

nineteen. It is estimated that 3,000 kids under the age of 18 start smoking every day.

Something must be done about this epidemic of underage smoking.

The side affects of smoking cigarettes are just incredible. It is amazing that people

don't quit after seeing that they really do just kill you over time. Cigarettes cause all sorts

of cancers, which lung cancer is the most common, increase risk of a stroke, and physical

harm. Smoking just about makes your entire body weaker. It's said that for every cigarette

you smoke, your actually smoking 5 minutes of your life away. Also, a fifty year tobacco

study shows that smokers will die about 10 to 15 years earlier than a nonsmoker. Of the

current 44.5 million smokers in 2003, 32 million wanted to quit. It's