Letter - Here's why to quit smoking

To the editor:

People should quit smoking. Why? Smoking can give you cancer such as lung, mouth or many other types. I don’t know the real names, though.

You can die from it, because it gives you carbon monoxide when you need fresh air. Smoking is one of the worst things kids or adults can do to their bodies.

There are 3,900 kids ages 12-17 who start smoking every year, Smoking Stinks says. Smoking Stinks is a scientific website for children on how smoking is bad.

People might think that when they are smoking around other people, it’s only affecting them. They are wrong. According to Lung Health (a website on how smoking is bad), secondhand smoke is worse than firsthand. It has more than 4,000 chemicals, which can make others sick or want to smoke firsthand themselves.

Within seconds, the poisonous toxins of inhaled cigarette smoke enter the blood stream. Carbon monoxide makes up the bulk of gas found in cigarette smoke. (This is the same poisonous gas found in automotive exhaust.) Cigarette smoke begins to cause damage to every organ of your body almost immediately.

Your body also becomes addicted to the nicotine in tobacco quickly. The addicting elements of nicotine cause the overwhelming majority of smokers to fail at repeated attempts to quit smoking, according to Live Strong, another website.

I hope this letter will change smokers’ lives into healthy, smoke-free lives.

Rylee Thompson, Grade 4,

Miltona Science Magnet School

Miltona, MN

Tags: opinion, letters