Confessions of a Teenage Muffler (Smoking and its Social, Physical, and Environmental Effects) By: Rich Fernandez (Ricardo

L. Fernandez Jr.) Admit it. For at least once in your childhood you've thought, what is smoking? How does it feel like? Is it something you should do when you grow up, or is it something that you shouldn't do because Mom says so? Back then, smoking was something we imitate with our cigarette shaped candies, making smoking gestures with long things like wooden sticks. But we never really know the answers to the questions above until we really try and do it, or at least make a deep research about it. In my case, I did both. So here it is... PART 1 Curiosity Thrilled the Phat No smoker is born a smoker (if you are, good for you). We were all just curious at one point. It's amazing how curiosity could instantly turn into an addiction. A kid would be like, "My brother's smoking and he's smoking that smoke real cool". Then when he's a teenager, he would be like, "Bad ass kid is bad ass". But really, hes just trying to get along with all his other smoking friends. And its cool. Bad ass. We try to buy a pack of cigarettes over the counter and in some stroke of luck, the cashier wouldnt ask for your I.D. card. We learn how to lie to our peers that nicotine is not even in your vocabulary yet while in fact, its already down your throat (yes it is. I can smell it). We learn how to get a few blocks away from our school to smoke, hoping that no teacher or school security guard catches us do it, wearing our uniforms. It comes along with the times that we learn how to party. We get our first take on what it feels like to be drunk and for once, we think of ourselves as a cool grown up, doing cool grown up stuff as if it is the coolest grown up thing to do. For some, they call it, How to live, but really, its not living, its dying. This leads us to PART 2 Hes practically25% Dead Already

The coolest smoker of our time gets the coolest, most interesting rewards amongst all. This includes Cancer, Tuberculosis, High Blood Pressure, Aneurism, Emphysema, and Chronic Bronchitis to name a few (most of which, I dont even know how to pronounce properly. Can you?). But of course if youre 14 and your lungs are as good as a fresh muffler, you wouldnt know much about the risks of smoking if it doesnt involve getting sent to the principals office or get grounded. Seriously, non-smokers, youre getting this from a real smokers point of view. A teenage smokers top concern in smoking is either not to get caught by your peers or please be caught by your friends doing it. Smoking brings about 440,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone and 105,000 in the UK. How does it do it all? It turns out: men who smoke gradually increase their risk of dying from bronchitis by nearly 10 times, emphysema by nearly 10 times as well, and lung cancer by more than 22 times. Even in second hand smoking which has virtually equal effects with that of first hand smoking (lesser by a hairline), it causes nearly 50,000 deaths each year in the United States (as stated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The life expectancy of a smoker is cut short by 10-12 years. The younger the onset of smoking, the younger he is most likely to enjoy its effects. We dont know what we get into unless we know what itll do to us. So if youre still with me, and my aim not to bore you to death is still working, here is my last know it all piece: PART 3 If you wanna die, do it alone Believe it or not, smoking does not only affect our own health, it affects others and the environment as well. We smokers are one of the major contributors in degrading the environment. Though as a typical kid, a teenage smoker couldnt care less, really. As they wouldnt care about its effect on themselves, why would they give a crap about its effects on others? Well, here you go kids The facts: About 4000 chemicals are present in a single cigarette. Imagine these chemicals being filtered down your lungs for your body to absorb and the excess, expelled out in the air for others to enjoy. Delightful. These chemicals include Benzene, Ammonia, Formaldehyde, Tar, Nicotine, and Carbon Monoxide. Those of which mainly affects our body and that of the others in second hand smoking. These chemicals can (and will) get you years after you smoke. If you think a single smoke cant harm the environment, picture this: You smoke 1 cigarette a day, every day for the rest of your life and 68% of the population does the same. Still thinking small? Imagine all of that piled up, free flowing in the air, being breathed by everybody including you. Its like youre in a closed air conditioned room and a grumpy old stranger is smoking incessantly.

Not only does it contribute in air pollution, it affects our towns and cities directly. Did you know that roughly 13% of the trash you see in the streets are cigarette butts? That doesnt include those that are disposed of in a proper waste bin but those that arent, they contribute in clogging our sewers, causing flash floods. So far, this has been my conclusion to what smoking really does to us. What it did to me and to those who experienced the same, and worth to be called teenage mufflers. Not clever enough, but definitely appropriate enough.

Sources: http://www.smokingeffects.org/ http://www.cdc.gov/ http://smoking.ygoy.com/ http://www.stop-smoking-programs.org/