Smoking Should Just Be Illegal

            Parents smoking in front of their children can have a major impact on their child. Children sometimes buy cigarettes for their parents and are rarely asked for a I.D. or any other way to show their age. People cigarettes should be illegal because children are using it and endangering themselves, it can be a bad influence on the child buying it, and their parents can cause a substantial amount of damage on their child by smoking around them.

            Many children under the age of 18 have tried a cigarette or are a daily smoker. Nearly 20 percent of 12th graders, 12 percent of 10th graders and 5.5 percent of 8th graders smoke cigarettes daily. Each day 6,000 children, under the age of 18, will start smoking and of those 6,000, 2,000 of them will become regular smokers. With 16 percent of boys and 24 percents of girls smoking before the age of 15, cigarettes can have a major impact on children.

            When a parent smokes cigarettes it can be a negative influence on their child and they have a higher chance of smoking. 90 percent of adults, who now regularly smoke, were influenced as a child. Children who have parents that smoke are twice as likely to smoke on a daily basis. 82 percent of parents who smoke, smoke around their children leaving the idea that they are allowed to smoke.

            Many parents who smoke are damaging their children more than themselves through secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke can cause lung and heart problems, and even types of cancer. There are 26,000 cases of childhood asthma that appears because of secondhand smoke. There is a staggering 4,000 chemicals that has been found in second hand smoke from cigarettes, and of those 4,000, 36 of them can cause cancer.

            Overall, smoking should be illegal because it can lead to many problems and can be a very negative influence the child. Some of the problems like secondhand smoking, and the chances of the child smoking it for themselves will soon become a bigger problem if nothing is done about it.