For a long time, I have stood in lines waiting for movies or concerts and had tobacco smoke blown into my face. I run into smoke on the way to class everyday, the way to work, the way to the gym. I even have experienced people smoking right outside next to my apartment. I can’t stand it.

Smoking is extremely dangerous and I really am tired of getting second hand smoke. My father used to be a smoker and I see the long-term effects in him and his ever increasing medical bills.

I wish people my age could understand keeping smoking to themselves, away from other people.

Smoking tobacco has been a hot button issue for a long time.  While many adolescents and adults thought smoking was a cool activity, a vast majority of the public doesn’t agree.  The public is fully aware of how harmful the act of smoking tobacco can be.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that tobacco is the single main preventable cause of death in the United States. If the public knows how commonplace these harmful effects are, then why do college students smoke?

At the university level, many students don’t agree with laws disallowing indoor smoking or smoking within 25 feet of a building.

I, for one, am one of the few people in a university that agree with the law. Everyone I have talked to about smoking, or who smoke and discussed the laws on smoking with me have thought the law was ridiculous. While attending university I have run into people who greatly disagree with the law.

They choose to smoke next to the entrance of buildings and blatantly blow smoke into people’s faces while standing in line for a concert. Yay, smelling like grape swishers!

I feel almost weakened by people who don’t care what happens to others due to their smoking. I don’t want to be inevitably harmed because someone wanted to rebel against the government. Maybe some students aren’t as well educated about smoking.

Why is smoking near people a bad thing? According to the CDC, 58 million nonsmokers in the U.S. have inhaled other people’s cigarette smoke.  They also state that each year 41,000 non-smokers die due to the effects of breathing in all that smoke.  

So why are people wanting to endanger others? To be rebellious? Are they naïve? Or, do people in college just not care about the other part of the student body that doesn’t smoke? There must be a reason behind student’s actions.

Alberta Health Services thinks teens smoke because of stress, weight, social influence, and boredom. Do these influences travel with teens from high school into college? I think they do.  Stress is commonplace around the university setting.

There are homework assignments that just pile up during finals. A student’s weight could come into terms, but many times smoking can lead to weight gain instead of weight loss.

Many students want to be accepted and make friends right off the boat. I know I did. Some find that immediate connection through smoking tobacco together.

Most students don’t have the money to support a smoking habit.  According to The Motley Fool, a multimedia financial services company, the average price of a pack of cigarettes is $9.30- smoking multiple packs a day is an expensive habit.

Hopefully, people will stop falling into this vicious cycle and are able to cope with their stress in different ways and not waste their money on cigarettes. Some students say smoking will never stop and that it is too ingrained into American society. Even if that is true, I hope people will be a little more courteous now that they know the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.

So, to smoke or not to smoke? The decision is up to the public.