I came to this high school expecting see just a few smokers, if any at all. But to my surprise, there were far more than just a few. Personally, it was a major letdown to see so many bright young minds smoking.

We do not live in the ‘60s or the ‘80s; smoking is not “cool” anymore. Each cigarette you smoke shortens your life by 20 minutes. The most important risk, however, is cancer. Some cancers caused by smoking include cancer of the oral cavity, cancer of the pharynx, cancer of the larynx, cancer of the esophagus, cancer of the bladder, stomach cancer, cervix cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, acute myeloid leukemia and lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in smokers. Men who smoke are 25 times more likely to get lung cancer than those who do not, while women are 13 times more likely. 90 percent of men get lung cancer from smoking, while 80 percent of women get lung cancer from smoking.

In 2003, there were 157,200 deaths caused by lung cancer. In the same year there were 12,100 deaths from esophageal cancer, 12,500 deaths from bladder cancer and 30,000 deaths from pancreatic cancer. These statistics are from 2003, so keep in mind that as the population has grown, so have the deaths from smoking-related diseases.

My mother is a private hospice nurse, which means she takes care of people who are very close to death. My mother recently took care of a woman named Lil, and during the last two days of her life, the cancer in her lungs literally poured out of her mouth. You could not even go near her because the smell of her rotting flesh and cancer was just too much to bear. I would not like to see this happen to any of the students here.

Between me and my mother, we have seen around a dozen people die from smoking-related diseases or cancers in the last three years. The oldest person was around 85 years old, the youngest around 65.

I have a great friend who is at Massachusetts General Hospital right now dying from pancreatic cancer caused from smoking her whole life. She started smoking when she was 15 years old, and she is now 68. When she was diagnosed, the doctors did not find just one tumor, they found five. She is now in a hospital bed and has been given two months to live. Smoking not only put her on her deathbed, but also affected her in her youth. When she was younger, she had a really hard time finding jobs because people would not take her seriously because of her smoking.

Half of my family smokes right now, and I have been trying to get them to stop for years. All of my aunts and uncles have smoked since their freshmen years in high school because it was “cool” back then. If you are a smoker, I know that this article probably will not stop you from smoking. But with every cigarette you smoke, think, “I have just shortened my life by 20 minutes.”

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