Introduction
In most nations of the world, the act of smoking is mostly an individual decision. Though there are social circumstances that push an individual to smoke, it is in essence a personal decision. Cigarette smoking has adverse health effects both to individuals and the social health indicators as well. As it will be argued below, most of these negative health indicators can be eliminated by minimizing smoking. Most governments under the advice from the World Health Organization have imposed excise duty on cigarette smoking. From an economic perspective, the governments end up making massive profits and as it will be demonstrated, the revenue they receive from cigarette sells has the potential to finance some health activities. Looking at this therefore, the argument on cigarette smoking is determined by two core domains, the economic and the health perspective.
Discussion
At present day, the populations have been educated and are more informed of the health dangers that develop from smoking. Smoking itself has been proved by epidemiologist to be the risk factor for diseases such as cardiovascular heart disease, bronchitis, lung cancer and many more chronic diseases. As the smoke flows either through the mouth or nose, it does more damage to our bodies than good. The level of education influences the rate of smoking. As individuals climb above the education radar, they minimize the smoking incidences and prevalence. Therefore, if the learned themselves minimize aim to quit smoking, it demonstrates that they are aware of the dangers and aim to keep away from them. The table below as documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrates further as it is in the United States:
If cigarettes production and smoking was to be banned completely today, the end result would be that many individuals would lose their jobs. Those in the farms growing cigarette, those in the factories, the dealers, the whole sellers and the retailers would suffer greatly. This aspect is from an economic perspective which targets productivity at the individual level. This is therefore a social setback.
According to the image above, the United States recorded that the tobacco industry scooped a total of up to $664 billion dollars revenue in 2010. This is estimated to be greater than the GDP of all but eighteen nations. From the same view point, England records that between the years 2011-12, the government eventually earned a total of 12.1 billion euros in revenue from the taxation of tobacco which was inclusive of the VAT. After this, the government then ended up spending 88.2 million euros on services to help people to stop smoking plus another 66.4 million on medication to stop smoking. This is a demonstration therefore that, the revenues that the government was able to gather was massive despite the fact that it had to incur the costs which develop from cigarette smoking.
The side effects are massive. Cancer of the blabber, cervix, blood, rectum and colon, esophagus, kidney and ureter, liver, larynx, stomach, trachea, bronchus, lung and pancreas are all triggered by smoking of cigarettes. The deaths resulting from smoking is up to 480,000 in the United States. This is an implication that it results to more than the combination of deaths resulting from alcohol use, illegal drug abuse, motor vehicle injuries, firearm related incidents and human immunodeficiency. Smoking affects pregnancy and the baby’s health, affects men’s fertility, bone health, teeth and gums and rheumatoid arthritis.
Conclusion
Cigarette consumption should be banned. This is because, the benefits of smoking, if any, do not exist at an individual level. The benefits may be notable at the level of the state in terms of the revenue generated. Looking deeper however, the productivity of individuals is bound to decrease marginally upon cigarette consumption. The mortality and morbidity levels due to cigarette consumption are always increasing. Health in itself according to economists is an investment bearing in mind that healthy days result to more productive days which has a positive impact on the economy. With the banning of cigarette smoking, the government would have to come up with healthier ways of earning more revenues and creating new job opportunities. The bottom line will still stand that with the current evidence, cigarette smoking causes more harm than good.
Works Cited
Alamar, B. "Effect of Increased Social Unacceptability of Cigarette Smoking On Reduction in Cigarette Consumption." American Journal of Public Health 96.8 (2006): 1359-1363. Print.
"CDC's April 2002 Report On Smoking: Estimates of Selected Health Consequences of Cigarette Smoking Were Reasonable.” General Accounting Office Reports & Testimony 1 Sept. 2003: 23-32. Print.
"Cigarette Smoking in the United States." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Mar. 2013. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. <http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html>.
Dube, S.R. Asman. "Cigarette smoking among adults and trends in smoking cessation--United States, 2008.” MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report [New York] 13 Nov. 2009: 53. Print.
"Smoking Statistics." Action on Smoking and Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. <http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_93.pdf>.
