On Why One Should Stop Smoking Essay (Speech)

Introduction

Credibility material: how do you really feel when some of the problems you or your relative or even friends face are due to smoking? And is it possible to stop smoking after you have been told that smoking will definitely give you serious health problems? Well, I had a friend who became a chain smoker. He used to wake and the first thing that went into his mouth was a cigarette stick, then any other thing will follow thereafter.

My friend had been experiencing persistent coughs that made him suspect he might have contracted HIV virus yet he had not yet spent with a woman. But he went for HIV test which proved negative. He continued smoking as he sought out the cough issue in his own way. One day he became very ill and the cough became even worse. As a friend, I accompanied him to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with cancer. The doctor’s advice was that he should stop smoking; however, he never adhered to the doctor’s advice and later died of serious cancer. That was a sad event caused by what could be avoided.

1. Link to the audience: one of the people who have suffered health complications or death as a result of smoking maybe somebody close to you or someone you know.
2. Thesis and preview: today I am privileged to have your audience and I intend to talk to you about the effects of smoking, and also I propose to give a talk on how to solve the problem of smoking.

Shift into the main section of the speech: I will begin by telling you how smoking affects us.

The Body

So many people around the world have suffered the effects of smoking. I will talk about these effects in terms of health and financial effects.

• Research has found out that non-smokers are also exposed to dangers related to smoking. It can lead to increased effects of asthma on those who already have asthma, especially children. Taking for instance, available statistics indicate that in the United States of America alone, 53,000 non-smokers are killed by issues related to smoking (San Francisco Tobacco Free Project para1).
• To those who have coronary diseases, second-hand smoking increases the risk of the disease and can make it severe. Moreover, those who have high-risk factors of the disease can easily be attacked when exposed to smoking environment for a long.
• Imagine that being exposed to second-hand smoke for only thirty minutes is enough to cause damage to your heart and the damages are just similar to those of an actual or habitual smoker.
• Smoking also affects the unborn: the fetus is affected by secondary smoke inhaled by the mother.
• In women who are young and have not reached menopause, secondary smoke increases the risk of breast cancer.
• Other effects are impaired learning ability of children, increased risk of experiencing spinal pain, and reduced median cotinine levels (Bonnie pp.5-21).Transition: I believe that you can now realize that smoking does not only affect the smoker but even the non-smokers and the unborn. The problems related to smoking affect all of us, but the smokers are more exposed than non-smokers even though in some of the problems both groups suffer are just the same. Now I will tell you about the risks smokers directly face.

Habitual smokers are exposed to:

• Habitual smokers are at a very high risk of cancer. It has been known that smoking is one of the leading causes of cancer. Taking the case of the United Kingdom alone, approximately 106, 000 individuals die annually due to smoke-related cancer.
• Some of the diseases caused and or worsened by smoking include, lung cancer, diseases of the heart, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and also circulation problems.
• To pregnant women, smoking is highly likely to cause miscarriages, complications, poor development of the child which may continue after birth and it may also result into still birth or death of the child in the first one week of birth (Litt 29).
• Smoking also has economic and other effects on smokers. Smokers, especially heavy chain smokers, use a lot of money as cigarette expenditures. Some of other effects of smoking include, bad breath, clothes and home environment smell stale tobacco, reduces sense of taste, life insurance of smokers are damn expensive and potential employers may not like smokers due to the possibility of constantly seeking leave. Transition: you can see how much risk smokers are exposed to. It is important to note that these risks can potentially result into deaths. However, it is possible to avoid all these smoking-related problems. Now, my last discussion will be on how to solve the problem of smoking.

The only effective way in solving the problem is to stop smoking. But the question somebody may be asking is, “How do I stop smoking?” I will give some ways on how to do so:

• Willpower is one of the ways to use in solving the problems but the most difficult of all other ways. One should have the courage and have undying persistence on quitting smoking.
• Use nicotine-based chewing gum; even though they still contain nicotine, however, the victim under treatment is not getting the tar into the body system.
• Use anti-depressants under a medical doctor’s guide.
• It is important to stop smoking once diagnosed with problems related with smoking
• Another way to stop smoking is to seek the intervention of a counsellor who will guide you on gradual process of stopping smoking.
• Non-smokers, especially with risky diseases, should avoid smoking environments (Acts 50).

Conclusion

Brakelight/intention to stop: as you can realize, stopping smoking and campaigning against it will be beneficial to all of us.

Summary: I have talked to you about the effects of smoking on both habitual smokers and non-smokers and also on how the problems can be stopped or avoided. All of us must rise up and campaign against smokers or else we will gradually be affected and infected.

Link back to the audience: now that you know the effects of smoking and how to solve it will you help somebody stop smoking? How happy will you be or satisfied will you feel if someone is to come to thank you for helping him or her stop smoking? Let us take the challenge.

Concluding remark: I am going to stop here, but not before I give you a quote by somebody known as Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland. “A cigarette is the only consumer product which when used as directed kills its consumer.”

References

Acts, Humbler. How to Stop Smoking in 50 Days. New York: Bookway International Services, 2001.

Bonnie, Richard. Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation. New York: National Academies Press, 2007.

Litt, Iris. Taking our pulse: The health of America’s women. New York: Stanford University Press, 1997.

San Francisco Tobacco Free Project. “Untitled.” 2010.