<p>It’s so sad. Saw a little freshie woman going to class with a coffee in one hand and an e-cigarette (pink) in the other. The coffee made sense to me. The e-cigarette did not. </p>
<p>I’m not here to debate if smoking is bad or not, or my own views on it (if it were up to me, I’d use drone-strikes on smokers).</p>
<p>The point is, why do so many healthy, attractive young people start smoking in college?</p>
<p>The majority of smokers start smoking in high school, not college. </p>
<p>It has to do with peer-pressure, wanting to fit in, etc, etc. </p>
<p>Mandalorian, what you’re really asking is why people make any decisions that are not in their long-term interest. The answer is simple. Our brains are made of flesh, not metal. I could elaborate on that, but I don’t see much point.</p>
<p>Why do people start drinking or doing drugs? Why do people go skydiving? Why do people drive too fast? Why do people do anything? Because life is about experimenting and trying new things. People try cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs because they want to experiment with new things. People often start smoking because they see other people smoking, but in my experience, peer pressure and “wanting to fit in” are basically just the terms that professionals use to describe it, and are not really that true in most respects. I never felt peer pressured to start smoking, and I never started smoking to fit in. It was more along the lines of “hmm, I wonder what that’s like. I’m going to try it.”</p>
<p>@comfortablycurt @WasatchWriter </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m sure the OP enjoys fresh oxygen and air. Smokers are one of the biggest nuisances to that. If you’re gonna smoke, you should get a private house, and do it there. Other people shouldn’t be subject to suffering because of your quest to kill yourself.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It depends on where you are. Take NY for example. Because of the sheer amount of smokers in NY, if you walk up and down any major avenue in Manhattan for an entire day, that’s the equivalent of smoking an entire pack of cigarettes. Second hand smoke affects people and kills people.</p>
<p>I can’t stand smokers as people. I don’t care if it seems judgmental. They are the most selfish people in the entire world. It takes an extreme about of narcissism to jeopardize the health of the people around you and the health of your environment just so you can get a “release” or enjoy yourself.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Look, I’m not a smoker and I never have been, but you’re not grounded in any sort of reality. Get some perspective.</p>
<p>The line about Manhattan isn’t even true. I’d love to see any sort of source behind that statement and I doubt you’ve even spent any significant amount of time in New York if that’s honestly what you think. As for smokers being “the most selfish people in the world”, there are far bigger problems out there than some people lighting up cigarettes. Your responses just show a major lack of maturity.</p>
<p>As a side note: This is America, and in America people are afforded a great deal of personal freedoms. It’s nobody’s place to tell someone what they can/should do and not do within the confines of the law.</p>
<p>@Mandalorian, you’re kidding right? Drone strikes on people who smoke? You should probably rethink your priorities and mind your own business. Anyone who says something like that probably isn’t even mature enough for college. </p>
<p>@AnnieBeats, there are plenty more selfish people. It doesn’t seem judgemental, it is judgemental. Getting a whiff of someone’s smoke on the street isn’t jeopardizing the health of anyone else. Worry about our own life.</p>
<p>@Crimsonstained7 actually getting a whiff of someone’s smoke on the street can absolutely jeopardize the health of others. I don’t really want to have an asthma attack while walking to the store because some a**hole ~needs~ to smoke in a public area. People do have a right to smoke if they want to, but I also have a right to be healthy while walking around public areas.</p>
<p>@Crimsonstained7 I am worrying about my own life. Which is why I have made a push within my community to stop pharmacies from being able to sell cigarettes.</p>
<p>@maizeandblue Pg. 4</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1807508/pdf/bullnyacadmed00129-0095.pdf”>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1807508/pdf/bullnyacadmed00129-0095.pdf</a>
I was born and raised in NYC and moved upstate btw. Idc if you think it’s immature. I find smokers to be extremely selfish because every cigarette has a detrimental impact on the fresh air that all non smokers are entitled to inhale. Do some research on the environmental impact of smoking in conjunction with other pollutants. And how do you propose we fix the environment seeing that it is the only place we can actually live? Oh yeah, how about we spend billions from our budget to clean up a mess that was completely preventable. I do not think that smokers are the most selfish people in the world, but they are VERY high on my list.</p>
<p>@jazzcatastrophe</p>
<p>Radiation from the sun leads to skin cancer. Microwave ovens put out dangerous waves. A loose nail could give you tetanus. There’s a lot of things that could harm you much more seriously than breathing in second hand smoke two or three times a day and I’m talking about taking in an obnoxiously large inhalation of air right as you walk past a smoker.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats</p>
<p>Plastics, CO2 emissions, and monetarization of water are more pressing environmental concerns especially since you can get just as many carcinogens into your system from eating lunch meat everyday and in many other ways.</p>
<p>@jimmyboy23 none of those things are immediately harmful to my health. An asthma attack triggered by cigarette smoke is immediately harmful (because you know, breathing is generally important to being alive), and can be fatal. Big difference. I don’t care if people smoke, as long as they do it in designated areas so that I can avoid them to stay healthy.</p>
<p>I don’t enjoy the smell of fish. People who eat fish should get a private house or something to do it in. </p>
<p>They have smoking areas for a reason. So that people who smoke can smoke in the designated smoking areas. If you don’t enjoy the smell of cigarettes, it’s typically pretty easy to pick a path that goes around the smoking area. I don’t like the religious people that set up booths on campus and try to spread the word. So I pick a path that doesn’t take me past them when I see them. </p>
<p>An equivalent to smoking an entire pack of cigarettes in a day? I would absolutely LOVE to see something to back that claim up. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In theory, yes, this is a fantastic idea. In practice, no, smokers don’t stay in their designated smoking area. Avoiding a designated smoking area does absolutely nothing. The smokers who are annoying are the ones who smoke where they are not allowed to (right beside entrances to buildings or no-smoking signs, for instance). I have no problem with the smokers who stick to their designated smoking area.</p>
<p>And when someone’s fish sets off a building’s fire alarm, then I’ll be completely on board with you to ban that to a designated area as well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would not be surprised if the percentage of smokers in NYC is now much lower than when you were growing up (or in 1978, when the paper linked was published). Of course, air pollution from other sources was also generally much worse back then.</p>
<p>This is not to say that secondhand smoke is not an annoyance that has some health hazard. But it is somewhat more avoidable today than decades ago.</p>
<p>@jazzcatastrophe
If you’re worried about breathing fresh air then you should be more worried about perfume. I’ve seen more people struggle with breathing due to perfume and start hacking or get nauseous within second of someone across the room spraying it. </p>
<p>Trust me, I would be the first to say boot all the girls out of enclosed spaces like offices and classrooms while they are wearing perfume, but somehow I don’t think a majority of society would agree. Darn girls have no self-control, making life hard on the asthmatics of the world.</p>
<p>@comfortablycurt “They have smoking areas for a reason. So that people who smoke can smoke in the designated smoking areas.” That would make sense if there was a bubble to block smoke from leaving that designated area. Smoke travels. Not just the smell, but actual SMOKE. Most designated areas are right in front of buildings too. So should I have to walk in the street and risk getting hit by a car? Stop it. Really, just stop.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats
Why are you so concerned with cigarettes. You should probably spend more time focusing on the carbon monoxide emissions from cars and diesel engines. They still allow cars near elementary schools where five year old children are present. There are many things more dangerous than cigarette smoke.</p>
<p>30-40 years ago cigarettes and smoking were major problems. In some areas teachers didn’t even have to go outside to take a smoke break. Now we have smoking areas and rules that reduce smoking in public areas. To say it significantly endangers other people’s lives is an exaggeration.</p>
<p>I’m concerned about smoking because I don’t like to see young people tricked by evil, soulless corporations and then become addicted to a dangerous drug that can kill them and subject them to horrible health issues. So while I may not try to have smoking banned, I sure will try to convince you not to do it, and I also support restricting the means those corporations use to try to dupe people into smoking.</p>
<p>
Presumably, you have never wondered what it would be like to drive nails into your head. This is because it is obvious to you that this would be a harmful and painful thing to do. But marketing by tobacco companies led you to believe that smoking was a sensible thing to try. But it isn’t, really. It’s pretty much entirely harmful and negative, and anything to the contrary is either propaganda from somebody who wants to take your money, or rationalization by people who are addicted and don’t want to admit it.</p>
<p>ya seriously, i was neutral on this subject but all u smoking supporters have the worst arguments for it. fish?? really? lol. but i can see where the smokers r coming from, cigarettes look really cool with a trench coat and a fedora amirite </p>