| How many smokers do you hear make the claim that | | | | The lungs themselves are a highly complex and |
| they are completely healthy? That they have never | | | | efficient network of intricate airways that keep your |
| had a day in hospital? That they know loads of people | | | | body functioning. The cilia in your bronchi are paralysed |
| who have lived to a ripe old age despite smoking? | | | | while smoking but, due to their efficiency, overnight |
| Well, that's ok. Why stop smoking if that is the case? | | | | they will begin to recover. By the morning, they are |
| After all, life is for living and doing what you want, right? | | | | desperately attempting to clear the lungs of the thick |
| Of course, everybody has the right to live their lives | | | | yellow/green mucus that has built up. The lungs want |
| just as they want. They have the right to gauge their | | | | rid of this because it is exactly this type of |
| own health and what they will and won't take into their | | | | environment that encourages the growth of viruses, |
| bodies. That must be why they think it's fine to take in | | | | respiratory diseases and cancer. This is the precise |
| carbon monoxide, ammonia, hydrogen sulphide and | | | | reason a smoker will cough first thing in the morning |
| formaldehyde in regular doses throughout the day. The | | | | and what puts them off from trying to stop smoking. |
| fact that they are still breathing means it's still fine to | | | | However, it is a good sign that the body is working on |
| reduce the amount of oxygen their body receives. | | | | repairing the damage already done. |
| They are more than happy to allow their resting hearts | | | | It is everybody's right not to stop smoking and allow |
| to beat an additional 36,000 times per day, putting a | | | | this state of affairs to continue but is it their right to put |
| strain on the heart and blood vessels, but hey, they're | | | | everyone else at risk by becoming a strain on the |
| still working! They are more than happy to pour a full | | | | NHS through preventable illnesses related to smoking? |
| eight ounces of tar into their lungs, coating their mouths, | | | | The longer you continue to smoke, or passive smoke, |
| throats and airways every year with the substance | | | | the bigger the strain on your lungs. Eventually, your lung |
| that prevents the lung lining and immune system from | | | | will lose some of their elasticity but because this |
| doing their jobs. All this and more is the right of the | | | | happens over a period of time it is less noticeable and |
| smoker. | | | | often put down to the aging process. As is the |
| But is it not the right of the passive smoker to walk in | | | | wrinkling of skin and the grey, aged look that |
| the fresh air without subjecting him or herself to this | | | | accompanies a smoker. This is not age, this is the |
| sort of poison? Is it not the right of every child to have | | | | effect of smoking and cannot be reversed. |
| the healthiest start in life possible? Passive smoking is | | | | In industrial environments, health and safety dictates a |
| no less dangerous than smoking itself. In fact, the | | | | safe level of carbon monoxide a person can be |
| poisonous chemicals in exhaled smoke can be more | | | | subjected to each day. A smoker's blood will contain |
| dangerous depending on a person's health. A passive | | | | 600 times that safe level. You wouldn't dream of |
| smoker does not have the option to stop smoking, | | | | sucking on an exhaust pipe so why would any |
| particularly if the smoker is in their own home. | | | | reasonable thinking person subject themselves to this? |
| When a smoker inhales these poisonous, addictive, | | | | Smoking opens up the body to all sorts of onslaughts. |
| killer chemicals, they coat their mouth, throat, airways | | | | The reproductive system, as well as sexual |
| and lungs with products that make the immune system | | | | performance, will be adversely affected as well as the |
| inactive. The lining of the throat will, after a short | | | | sense of taste and smell. Still, it is up to the individual |
| amount of time smoking, thicken and change into the | | | | that wishes to believe that smoking as done them no |
| perfect breeding ground for throat cancer. | | | | harm whatsoever. |