Besides the great cost to one’s health, tobacco is a great cost to one’s pocketbook. The average one pack a day smoker spends nearly $8 a day on cigarettes. That’s about $56 a week and about $240 a month. In one year, that smoker will spend nearly $3,000 on cigarettes alone. What could you do with an extra $3,000 a year?
The following chemicals are found in cigarettes and other tobacco products:
Acetone (Fingernail Polish Remover), Arsenic ( Rat Poison), Ammonia (Household Cleaner), Carbon Monoxide (Car Exhaust), Hydrogen Cyanide (Rat Poison), Hydrazine – (Rocket Fuel), Formaldehyde (Embalming Fluid), Methanol (Antifreeze), Cadmium (Batteries) and 600 other chemicals. When a cigarette is burned, over 3,000 chemical compounds are released.
Smoking and tobacco use cause outward damage to the body including yellowed teeth and skin and wrinkles, but the internal damage is much worse. Nicotine is a direct cause of high blood pressure and stroke. Smoking causes artery damage and heart damage leading to heart attack, stroke, cancer and diseases that could result in death. It weakens the bones and increases the risk of arthritis; damages lung function increasing the risks of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Smoking and tobacco use have been proven to cause lung cancer, mouth and throat cancers, stomach cancer, liver and kidney cancers. More than 400,000 preventable deaths in the United States are directly caused by tobacco use each year.
