The health concerns associated with tobacco use easily overshadow the other negative outcomes that accompany the choice to smoke. Beyond poor health, smokers face other consequences that can affect their daily interactions with other people and the way in which they live their lives. Public smoking restrictions meant to reduce widespread health problems have become gradually more restrictive. Eventually, smoking cigarettes might be more inconvenient than quitting.
Addiction
If smokers could quit when they liked, many of the concerns associated with tobacco use would disappear. The reality is that the nicotine in cigarettes is as mentally and physically addictive as heroin, according to the Nemours Foundation. Although individuals differ, it can take just a few days of cigarette smoking to develop a nicotine dependence.
Health Problems
The U.S. Surgeon General reports that smoking and inhaling secondhand smoke increase symptoms of existing allergy, asthma and heart conditions, especially in children. In otherwise healthy people, cigarette smoking causes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer and coronary heart disease.
Additional health problems associated with smoking include cataracts, reproductive disorders, periodontitis, peptic ulcers and osteoporosis. The surgeon general calls smoking the greatest preventable cause of premature death in America.
Personal Appeal
Heart or lung disease can result in poor physical fitness that makes smokers less able to participate in physical activity. Social and employment opportunities may also dwindle when nonsmokers are put off by yellowed fingers and teeth, the odor that clings to hair and clothes, and a persistent cough.
Financial Impact
The American Lung Association notes that in 2010, cigarettes cost between $5 and $10 a pack in the United States, and prices and taxes keep rising all the time. An annual habit can cost smokers thousands of dollars a year. Days missed from work due to health problems and the cost of health care also increase the financial burden associated with tobacco use.
Isolation
Nonsmokers' tolerance for the smell and unhealthful effects of secondhand smoke has decreased. The American Cancer Society notes that many landlords, employers and managers of public areas now opt to exclude smokers from their buildings.
