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Today's
Health Problems: Smoking
Keiko from Japan I attended a presentation about smoking given by a guest speaker. I've never smoked in my life, and also my best friends do not smoke because non-smokers feel uncomfortable if they're with smokers. So, many non-smokers became friends with other non-smokers. In fact, smoking is really unhealthy. I learned that there are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarettes, such as thinners, cadmium, and of course, nicotine. These chemicals are not good for our bodies. They are poisonous and cause cancer and other diseases. Also there are many chemicals in smoke, which comes from cigarettes. This smoke has more chemicals than smokers take in their body. It's called "second-hand smoke" and it is more dangerous and has higher risks. I also learned some facts of percentages of death by smoking. Approximately 6,000 smokers die every year in British Columbia, Canada. In other words, one of three smokers dies by lung cancer or other diseases. Smoking has the highest percentage of deaths compared to other addictive drugs and alcohol. In my opinion, smokers should quit smoking as soon as possible. There are no good points to smoking. There are only risks of death and it's also too expensive to buy cigarettes. I learned many things about smoking, and there're all terrible facts. I want to urge smokers to "butt out!"
Hiroko from Japan The other day I heard about smoking from a guest speaker. I'm a smoker now. I thought candidly that smoking is terrible. Tobacco has a lot of bad chemicals in it. For example, I learned that cigarettes have over 4,00 chemicals in them, such as nicotine, thinner, cadmium, and phenol. If I continue to smoke, I may contact a horrible disease, and if I have a baby, some bad chemicals might cause damage to my baby. I'd like to quit smoking some day. Smoking is my habit, so I can't stop smoking immediately. However, I want to stop smoking little by little because I got much knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking from the guest speaker.
Atsushi from Japan I went to a presentation about smoking. First, I watched some commercials about smoking. I especially remember two commercials. The first one showed a smoker’s lung. A doctor removed the lung from the smoker and cut it open. Then, the doctor dropped black oil into the lung. It said that a smoker’s lung is black and dirty like that. The other one showed a demonstration against a tobacco company. Some people gathered in front of the company, carrying body bags with protestors inside them. They lined these bags up all around the company and spoke out against the selling of cigarettes. Next, the guest speaker showed a real pig’s lung to us. The pig had developed lung cancer and died, so the right lung was extremely smaller than the left lung. She said that if you smoked cigarettes, your lung could become like that. She also showed us a magazine about smoking diseases. It said smoking causes many diseases, not only lung cancer, but also mouth, throat, heart and stomach cancer. One cigarette includes over four thousand chemicals. In addition, if you smoke one package a day, it costs $ 1,820 a year. I wonder why smoking cigarettes is legal in spite of the deadly risks. I realized that smoking is very bad for our health through this presentation. I’ve smoked for about 3 years. Now I really want to quite smoking for my health. In my opinion, smoking should be illegal.
Kazutake from Japan In Canada, drugs are a very serious problem. Many people think marijuana should be legalized. I think many Canadians feel marijuana is not bad. In fact, The Vancouver Sun newspaper recently reported that 71% of Vancouverites support the decriminalization of marijuana (The Vancouver Sun, Jan,31,2001). Sometimes, I can see people on the street smoking marijuana. Many Japanese think that getting drugs is very easy in Canada. It's very bad for children and for international students who come to Canada to learn English. The most surprising thing I learned from the guest speaker is that on average, people begin smoking marijuana at 12 years of age, and there are two drug-related deaths per day in Canada. I was very surprised! I think the government should have stricter drugs laws. In addition, if someone tries to sell us drugs, we must have strong will power to say, " No!"
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