Smoking in general

After writing my 'Giving up Smoking In General' opinion I then started to think a bit more about smoking and how I started. It was during the summer holidays of 1975, in between leaving Primary School and going up to Secondary. Why did I start? How did I start? Those are 2 questions I have often asked myself, and whilst I pretty much know the answer to the second question the first one is still a bit of a mystery. In fact why does anyone start smoking? The common reason given for why youngsters start smoking is because of 'peer pressure', however I have a couple of my own theories about that which I will go into ...

Around 13 million people smoke in the UK. That breaks down to 28% of men and 26% of women. Most of these people are addicts. I should state that I am a non-smoker. I have never so much as held a cigarette let alone brought one to my lips. I do not enjoy being in a smoke filled room but I will not preach. I am of the firm belief that smoking is an addiction which should be treated in the same way as a heroin addiction. Yes, I would like to see more help for those who currently smoke. I would also like to see far more provision to stop people from becoming smokers in the first place. It is undeniable that smoking carries with it, huge risks to ...

As someone who has grown up in the world of anti-smoking hysteria, and as someone who has done a fair bit of research into it, I consider myself fairly clued up on the issues surrounding smoking. I am a non-smoker myself, but I'm far from being a mad anti-smoking nutcase! Firstly, I will consider why people start smoking. One of the biggest reasons teenagers start, in my opinion, is because of the diabolical approach taken to education about smoking to those of school age. I am a recent school leaver, and the education we received was very one dimensional. There was actually very little time devoted to this very important issue; Key stage 2, 3 & 4 science ...