Did you know that puffing one cigarette can shorten a smoker’s life by 11 minutes?
Research has shown that smoking reduces life expectancy by seven to eight years. About 90 percent of lung cancer cases and 30 percent of fatalities from cancer is related to smoking. Deaths related to smoking are due mainly to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), heart disease, and cancers. Smoking-related illnesses kill about half of all smokers. In most cases, those who started smoking early also make it a life-long habit. These early smokers are also those who are most prone to smoking-related diseases.
Even if the ill-effects of cigarette use are widely known, why do many people still continue smoke? Smoking is a hard habit to break because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive. Like heroin or other addictive drugs, the body and mind quickly become so used to the nicotine in cigarettes that a person needs to have it just to feel normal.
People start smoking for a variety of different reasons. Some smoke because they think that it is the cool thing to do. Others get started on smoking because their family members or friends also smoke....