Secondhand Smoke

Have you ever stood on the side walk and smelled something funny? What smell is this, is someone smoking right next to you? It’s SECONDHAND SMOKE!!!!! This happens everywhere. It is what happened to me when I was little.

Secondhand smoke is bad for you. It’s not good for you because the air is not clear. The person next to you is giving you secondhand smoke. How is this bad? Did you know breathing secondhand smoke damages your heart and lungs, which increases the risk of heart disease by 25 to 30 percent?

When I was about 8 years old my dad, grandmas, and grand dad smoked.  When I was outside my dad would smoke. Then when I was at my grandparents’ house they would smoke in the house. Smoking was already in my life, the smell didn’t get to me. I liked the smell.

Because of that, I grew up smoking myself, but it changed my life badly. I wanted to play sports, but I couldn’t really breathe. I felt like my stomach was on fire and I couldn’t catch my breath. I thought about not listening to my mom and some people would talk to me about smoking but I didn’t listen because I was hardheaded. It took me a while to get my lungs back. Then I felt like smoking again. I couldn’t stop smoking.

Now I don’t think about smoking cause smoking is not an option when you’re at my age. That is how secondhand smoke got to me. Don’t let it get to you.

Movies

You see your favorite actor smoking; you think it's cool don't you? If  you did, then you thought wrong! Smoking may seem cool in the movies but let me tell you the truth.

Tobacco companies spend more than $11.22 billion in marketing their products each year. Every teenager that is a non-smoker tends to smoke after watching their favorite stars smoke in movies. 390,000 kids are nearly enough to replace every adult smoker killed by tobacco each year.

Smoking in G, PG, or PG-13 rated movies should be put into RATED R because young people in the US watch an average of three movies a week which adds up to 15 exposures to smoking a week. Smoking in movies influences teenagers more than the real life.

Now, you see what I'm trying to point out here? Smoking in movies just seems cool because you don't see that yellow teeth, bad skin, ugly hair, or premature wrinkles on their face. But smoking in real life isn't like how it is in movies. You don't have lights to cover your appearance. You
don't have make-up artists and hair stylists to do your make-up and hair.