Cigarette Smoking is Injurious

Cigarette smoking, apart from its core service of the ingestion of tobacco, presents a few subtle and implicit conundrums at the societal scale. Numerous studies have been undertaken since the second half of the 20th century that consistently conclude that tobacco consumed in most addictive forms is harmful to the human body. This evidence is not only confined to the results of laboratory-based studies, but can be apparent to us through the world around us (if we choose to open our eyes). We all know someone, or at least someone who knows someone, who has died as the result of cigarette smoking. From various kinds of cancers, to early death, asthma, bronchitis, fatigue, loss of hair, (even loss of sperm count for men, and a number of reproductive implications for women), medical records across geographies and time scales have erased all doubt: Cigarette smoking is injurious to health.

Why do we still smoke? Generation after generation? Why do we lavishly (and how!) pave the road to our own grave?

I have a disclosure to make: I started smoking this summer and loved the experience. At the same time, I also know its horrible. I’ve felt fatigued and unhealthy. And I want to quit already — before it becomes a serious addiction. I’ve read so much about the harmful effects; and my genetics don’t support me either (my grandparents and father are all patients of asthma).

My situation confuses me. I’m educated. And most of things I’ve done have been sensible demonstrating constructive use of resources and time. Even someone like me, relatively not as addicted and, as I would like to believe, a person of reason, while at a 7 Eleven, will try to convince my own-self why I should buy that pack of potentially ill-fated Marlboros: from “only this one last time,” “oh come on, big deal, the scientific evidence is all a damned hoax,” to something as absurd and illogical as “I’m a ghost rider and I don’t fear death.” (That, luckily, has not been my chosen line of reasoning for more than one occasion).

Only now, after falling prey myself, can I empathize with those who have been sucked into the quicksand of addiction. Before I tried a few myself, I was heavily judgmental about smokers. It seemed like a losing proposition only madmen (and women) would risk indulging in.

That was a micro perspective. Zoom out, and you’ll see millions of such perspectives aggregating into the macro debate. Smokers argue that it is their choice to do what they want and that a governing institution cannot impose itself on them, while the other side touts for the savings in health costs, and all the consequential benefits to the community at-large that flow as a result.

Look at our own campus. The University of Maryland has banned all smoking activity on campus. My smoker friends are outraged. Non-smokers don’t really care (but, hey, second-hand smoke is also a big deal they’ll be spared of). To be honest, that Anand somewhere inside me is elated. I won’t feel tempted to indulge every time I see someone lighting up.

In conclusion, the debate around cigarette smoking is a very intriguing societal issue. Even though the negative effects are so apparent — so much so that all cigarette packets come with dire warnings addressed to potential consumers — tobacco companies netted about $35 billion in annual profits globally (out of $350 billion of annual revenue) in 2010. That’s a lot of money, folks. It’ll be interesting to go over the minute facets of this issue, and see why people get possessed with a killing addiction — even though most of them, sane people, know its ‘bad’ in every sense. Our question for the day (rather, semester): Why do you do something — repeatedly — that is bad for you?

PS. Initially, I thought about writing on “Immigration and Entrepreneurship” as my theme; now I think this endeavor is more appropriate given the audience, the college setting, and that inspiration I need myself to come out of this poorly judged habit.