The effects of anti-smoking campaigns on public health

¶ … Minmum 750 words.

The tobacco industry is one of the most successful businesses in the contemporary society. This happens in spite of the fact that individuals who smoke are very well-acquainted with the risks coming along with smoking the substance. What is even more concerning is that smoking is often adopted by certain individuals as a result of the fact that they believe that they are fashionable because they smoke. Surely, freedom is one of the most important values that the social order benefits from and it would be absurd to deny someone the right to smoke as long as the respective individuals understands the risks and still wants to do it. However, considering that most people who start to smoke do it because they are searching for social acceptance or simply want to feel what it is like to smoke, it seems that the system needs to install more complex educational programs meant to stop people from smoking.

Many individuals who are accustomed to smoking find themselves saying things like "This is the way that I am," or "I have an addictive personality." However, people first need to think about the reason why they smoke and get actively involved in solving diverse problems that they associate with the practice. Consequent to doing so, they are likely to refrain from smoking as long as they do not feel that they have to relax through performing this act.

While smoking was not regarded as being dangerous until the recent decades, people have always been aware that it can be particularly harmful, taking into account that the body rejects it from the very first puff that a person takes. There have been numerous writings created in the past centuries meant to prevent individuals from smoking. However, it has not been until the last few decades that smoking actually came to be accepted as one of the most dangerous practices in society. "Evidence on the health effects of tobacco smoking, both active and passive, and of using smokeless tobacco has been central in driving initiatives to control tobacco use" (Slovic 3).

Even with the fact that society had little proof regarding the harmful effects that tobacco has on the body, people have associated various types of cancer with tobacco ever since the early twentieth century. The fact that diseases that were uncommon in the past (for example, lung cancer and coronary heart disease) started to occur frequently in individuals who consumed tobacco made it possible for people to comprehend that the plant was actually very dangerous.

Tobacco consumption should firstly be criticized because it is one of the primary factors killing individuals in the present-day society. However, there are actually many more aspects of the practice that need to be analyzed and that can represent good-enough reasons to stop using tobacco. Taking into account that people in the present have faced one of the worst financial crises that the world has ever seen, it only seems natural that more and more individuals focus on cutting costs on various things. Tobacco contains nicotine, a substance that triggers addiction in its users shortly after they start to smoke on a daily basis. This means that individuals who want to quit smoking for financial reasons have trouble doing so because they are addicted to nicotine. However, when considering the financial and health benefits associated with quitting smoking, many people are probable to express less interest in the practice and more interest in removing it from their lives.

One of the most intriguing things about smoking is that smoking companies rarely encounter problems. This is actually very normal, considering that these institutions have customers that would rather abandon other practices instead of quitting smoking. Tens of millions of individuals in the U.S. smoke on a daily basis and are probable to do so for many years to come. These people will be replaced by others when they will no longer be able or willing to smoke, thus meaning that the industry will always have customers.

In an attempt to create safer environments for people, many countries have installed laws that ban smoking in restaurants. In spite of the fact that this has had a beneficial effect for non-smoking individuals willing to spend their time in a place where they do not need to be passive smokers, many restaurant owners complain that their businesses have experienced significant problems as a result of the fact that smoking customers no longer express interest in visiting their places.