Editorial: Up in Smoke by Gustavo

Watching movies that includes smoking causes young people to start smoking, according to the Center for Disease Control. Putting a stop to any signs of smoking or tobacco use on screen can prevent the minds of young and innocent people who think about smoking. There is much controversy to whereas smoking should or should not be shown on the movie screens. Quite frankly, smoking should not be shown anywhere, especially on the movie screen. Like come on, who really wants to see people smoking and see them spread negativity in the air all around smoke-free people. We are trying to reduce the usage of tobacco amongst the youth. According to the 2012 Surgeon General’s report that because of the exposure to on screen smoking in the movies, 6.4 million children will become smokers, and 2 million will die prematurely from diseases caused by smoking. To that extent, I am proposing that any new movie containing smoking should be rated “R” with the one and only exception being when the tobacco representation clearly and unquestionably reflects the dangers and consequences of tobacco use or is necessary to represent smoking of a real historical figure.

Consequently, smoking can cause several medical problems that could ultimately range from: lung cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, viral and bacterial diseases, and meningitis or even major chronic diseases that can become unbearable at a given point in time. Those who smoke are going to have to deal with these consequences later in life. Those who continue to smoke frequently become addicted to the chemicals and become blinded to the harmful effects. Cigarettes contain over seven thousand chemicals with nicotine, being the most sought-after and most addictive chemical, puts foreign danger into our bodies. More than seventy percent of chemicals in tobacco smoke are extremely toxic and deadly, containing: lead, ammonia, benzene and many other dangerous toxins, that can be found in: gasoline, batteries, cleaning chemicals, according to the Center for Disease Control. The Big Tobacco companies do not do ingest the substances directly into us, but assist in it by third-person advertising. They either help us start our first light by promoting their preposterous ads in movies or by an effortless poster at a streetlight, tempting, us, the deliberative civilian. Therefore, when incidents; are a measure of the number of occurrences of smoking or other tobacco use in a movie, occur on the movie screens, that’s when we start to develop the notion of the notorious cigarette.

I undoubtedly believe, if people want to live a longer life and not have any big health problems as they grow old, then I highly urge them not to smoke. Smoking is tremendously unhealthy and is a mischief which only causes problems, not resolutions.  We should announce anti-tobacco advertisements before movies featuring smoking, to alarm everyone at the movies what smoking can cause and what it does to your lungs. In this way, we reduce the amount of future smokers.