Cigarette Smoking: The Slow Killer

Recently American people have become obsessed their health. While most people are constantly worrying about the dangerous consequences of obesity, many have forgotten about the United States' highest actual cause of death, smoking. In a 960 page Surgeon General's report entitled, The Health Consequences of Smoking, Dr. Richard H. Carmona highlights that 440,000 Americans die annually from cigarettes. Smoking is also responsible for a plethora of other health problems such as cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and asthma. …

…Tobacco abuse is universal; it affects people of all ages, races, and economic levels (CDC 1). Smoking is hazardous to one's health, and there is a staggering number of fatal diseases and cancers that are directly related to cigarette consumption. America needs to accept that smoking is the number one cause of death, and prevent it. As Laurence Pringle puts it in his book Smoking, a Risky Business, that smoking is simply "death in small doses." (29)