Dear Editor:
Nowadays on the television we see commercials depicting the horrible after-effects of a lifetime of smoking. Usually they show a man or woman who has a hole in their throat, and must speak with an electrolarynx. Older commercials made use of the images of a smoke-free lung compared to a lung of a long time smoker. These brought to our attention as a society that there are deadly, incapacitating risks involved with being a smoker, even if it is only one cigarette.
According to a March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, cigarette use among young people had declined since the introduction of these campaigns into our living rooms. Commercials that portrayed young people stockpiling body bags outside a tobacco company’s building allowed a potent message to be sent that a smoking environment and the allowance of it to continue is deadly, especially to the youth of the nation.
One aspect of these types of situations that I have not really seen is the effect smoking has on pregnant women, especially those experienced via second hand smoke. I feel efforts such as those mentioned previously would benefit a society that cannot take any risks whatsoever with pregnancy. Knowledge is widely known that pregnant women should quit smoking when they become pregnant, but it can be just as harmful if the woman is standing near someone smoking. It is estimated that there are roughly 4,000 chemicals in second hand smoke, and many of those can cause cancer. Consequences such as miscarriage, mentally ill babies, and SIDS can result from the inhalation of second hand smoke.
I want to urge everyone, whether you smoke yourself or know someone who does, please consider the effects this activity does to not only you, but to the unborn children who may be smoking their first cigarettes in their mother’s belly. For their sake, for your sake, and for a cleaner air supply for everyone else, please stop smoking.
David Germann