Smoking

Smoking is undoubtedly the largest health hazard worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 1.1 smokers around the world. Nicotine, the main ingredient in cigarettes, changes this bad habit into an addiction. Once it’s become an addiction it turns fatal. You risk your health for a mere rush that most do not understand. There are so many negative effects of smoking that outweighs any of the positive that it baffles to know why one would deliberately harm his or her body. It more shocking to know that the people smoking are actually harming innocent bystanders with second hand smoke. Assume I was standing outside my office and a friend decides to pull out a cigarette and smoke in my presence, I have the choice to either walk away from this health hazard or to stand and inhale the poisons. Now imagine a parent smoking around his child who he is supposed to be protecting and raising to be healthy and intelligent. The child has nowhere to go or nowhere to hide. The child does not even have to knowledge of what harms this weird smoke is doing to their body. The only possible reaction is for the child to go into another room if he coughs and know he is not attracted to this substance. Lastly I would like you to imagine a mother who smoke during her pregnancy harming the child before it’s even born. She is harming the child and putting the child at risk before the child has any option of getting away from it. In this paper I will be spending my time arguing why I think women who smoke during pregnancy should be charged with child abuse. You see countless advertisement and commercials discourage smoking yet, millions of people still continue to smoke. You would think they have no idea of the effects of smoking and the health risk. Some of the biggest problems are cancers, lung disease, and cardiovascular diseases. Cigarettes contain over four thousand chemical compounds and many of them are very toxic. Some of the chemicals in cigarettes are carcinogens, which mean they have been proven to cause cancer. Some are benzene, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, arsenic, and 3-butadiene. Cigarettes even contain even contain metals such as lead, copper, nickel, mercury, and aluminum. Once you light a cigarette, the smoke first goes into your eyes. The mixture of gasses irritates your eyes, your nose begins to run and your throat becomes irritated. The inhaled smoke goes deep into your lungs and soon becomes tar which sticks to many parts of your lungs. This tart is just like the tart found on roads or roof shingles. The chemicals of smoke then get absorbed into your bloodstream. From here the chemicals go to your heart and your hearty pumps it to the rest of your body. Your heart beats about to ten to twenty-five beats faster per minute. The oxygen levels in your blood are reduced due to the carbon monoxide that replaces it and tricks your body to think it’s actually oxygen. Your blood pressure rises about ten to fifteen percent because the lack of oxygen tells your heart to work harder. Some of the toxic materials in cigarettes that are used to increase the effects of nicotine going into your body with every pull the, can be found in other thing that are already harmful to consume or be around. For example ammonia, this is used to increase the absorption rate of nicotine, but it is also a cleaning product. It is used clean toilets; help treat wastewater; and a key ingredient in liquid fertilizer. Arsenic which most people know as a poison is found in cigarettes. Cadmium which is a metallic substance can be found in rechargeable batteries just like your cell phone battery. Formaldehyde which is a byproduct of cigarette smoke can be found in the morgue. It is the gas used to preserve dead bodies for burial. Acetone which is another byproduct of cigarette smoke is found in nail polish remover and also used to clean toilets. Benzene can be found in pesticide and also in gasoline. All these products are very harmful to all humans yet people still smoke. If you decide to harm your body that should be your problem but yet smokers harm everyone around them. In the past people were allowed to smoke anywhere and basically everywhere. While in my office if my co-worker decided to smoke and harm his body he could do it and harm me also. In recent years laws were established and passed to stop this act which was a big improvement. But there are still no laws that discourage smoking around children According to Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, passed in 1974, it is stated that “Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm” is deemed as child abuse or neglect. In the section about parental substance abuse, it states that some states recognize the exposure of harmful substance to children as child abuse and neglect. You would assume this means tobacco or cigarettes but in fact it is only talking about illegal substances. While pregnant a woman is to be careful of what she does in fear that she might harm the baby. Most women even watch what they eat because anything and everything they do affects the baby’s development. Their eating habits have to change because they are now eating for two and they have a direct link to the baby. Why is it that some women still don’t think about these aspects and protect their unborn child' “Cornell child abuse experts say it’s time to recognize smoking as child”, is the title of an article written in 1997 at Connell University. The article argues that for an act to qualify as child abuse it must meet three conditions. “First, there must be a basis in scientific knowledge or professional expertise that a particular practice is harmful or dangerous to children. Second, there must be a public debate stimulated by child advocates to use the new knowledge as a basis for challenging what has been regarded as normal and acceptable child rearing. Third, community values must adapt by accepting a new standard of care for children.” So why is it that smoking around your child or smoking during pregnancy is not an act for being charged with child abuse. It meets all the conditions. It has been proven scientifically that smoking harms the user and everybody around it, whether child or adult. There have been ads and fights against it by different groups. And lastly all communities would be welcomed to accept the new standards. The article further argues the point by giving an example of acts that were once okay but now adult are penalized for not following the standards of protecting their children. Forty years ago no standards, Garbarino said. An injured child was simply the victim of an "accident." About thirty years ago though there were data that some injuries and fatalities could have been prevented by the parent if they were more careful and placed their children in the rear seat. It became a common practice twenty years ago for parents to offer protection to their children. Later there were laws that were passed to make sure parent offered protection for their children and in the event something happened, the child was a victim of negligence on the parent’s part. You see these laws being enforced at all time. If somebody sees a parent hitting or mistreating a child they immediately pick up the phone and report it. But as for smoking since its legal, nobody ever says anything. You would never hear a report that “I spotted a woman smoking in front of her infant.” For there to be a change there must be a clause added to the Child Abuse Treatment and Prevention Act to specify that smoking around children is against the law. In New Zeeland, there was published that also argued that smoking should be an act that is deemed as child abuse. In the article “Smoking during pregnancy: Maori child abuse”, a simple question was asked. “Is it really child abuse' Aren’t you exaggerating'” the answer cam as followed; “When we look at the legal definition of child abuse there’s no doubt in our mind that it constitutes child abuse. Research clearly shows that smoking results in physical injury to a child. It’s about adults inflicting injury on babies and children. In the case of smoking, parents can make a choice to keep their children safe. If you smoke during pregnancy or around your children, you will injure them. The argument to charge women who smoke during pregnancy is not an exaggeration. You harm yourself while smoking. You harm innocent bystanders while smoking. You harm your children while smoking. And lastly and worst of all you harm a helpless undeveloped child while smoking. The developing baby has nowhere to run. It depends on its mother to feed and nourish it. Yet the mother is harming this baby. It has been proven that smoking during pregnancy cause many health complications. According to the March of Dimes, ten percent of women in the United States smoke during pregnancy and eighteen percent worldwide. The health complications of babies born to smoking parents are staggering. They include respiratory illnesses, low birth weight, Sudden Infant death syndrome, developmental difficulties, pneumonia, cancer and many more. According to the U.S. Public Health Service, if all pregnant women in this country stopped smoking, there would be an estimated eleven percent decrease in still birth and a five percent decrease in newborn deaths. These numbers show that smoking affects babies just as much as it affects adult. The fact is babies are vulnerable and they depend on adults to make a conscious decision in raising them and protecting them. In conclusion, smoking is bad for you. If you decided to continue to smoke and harm your body, that is your own issue with yourself. Harming a helpless and defenseless child should be a crime. As stated in the child abuse laws, whether it is an accident or intentional there is some penalties for causing harm to a child. The only thing is smoking has not yet been recognized as one of the acts. I think it’s because smoking is socially accepted just as alcohol is accepted. Some mothers actually drink wine during pregnancy and doctors think its okay. If it were a drug such as marijuana or heroin it would be a first class ticket straight to jail and damnation by the community. Our moral values and or selfishness have gotten the best of us. Protecting our kids should be priority number 1. The facts are child abuse is a crime. Harming children is a crim. Smoking harms children. There for smoking can be considered as child abuse. And smoking during pregnancy is also child abuse. References Susan Lang (1996). Child protection expert says it's time to recognize smoking as child abuse. Cornell Chronicles. Te Hotu Manawa Maori (2006). Smoking during pregnancy: Maori child abuse. United States Department of health and Human services. Child Welfare Information gateway Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2007). Smoking and Tobacco Fact Sheet: Women and Smoking. 2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2007) What Do We Know About Tobacco Use and Pregnancy. Law, K.L., et al. Smoking During Pregnancy and Newborn Neurobehavior. Pediatrics, volume 111, number 6, June 2003, pages 1318-1323