Call for a Blanket Ban on the Sale and Marketing of Cigarettes in the Essay

Call for a Blanket Ban on the Sale and Marketing of Cigarettes in the US - Essay Example People in the developed world and especially in the United States of America today approach the concept of health with an enhanced dedication and commitment. The food habits, lifestyles orientations and nutritional preferences are indeed altering in consonance with the guidelines and information available regarding health and healthcare. People today well understand that choosing a healthy lifestyle not only adds to the longevity, but also enables a person to be more productive and positive. However, relinquishing bad habits and making new choices does not seem easy when one intrudes into the area of addictive substances like tobacco. Moreover, the consumption of addictive substances like tobacco being legally valid and acceptable, most of the times people fail to realize that are the victims of a vicious addiction, which has the potential to take their life and to make them seriously sick. Considering this fact, the Federal Government should out with a law envisaging a pan-American ban on the sale and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products so as to reduce the healthcare costs, to save human lives and eventually to give way to a healthy and progressive society. The proposal for the coming into existence of such a law is not merely an emotive appeal, but is as much based on the existing data and information regarding the health implications of smoking. It goes without saying that to call for a blanket ban by the Federal government; it would be really pragmatic and reasonable to cull out the data from the existing government institutions and organizations regarding the mortality potential of smoking. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, â€Å"More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined (Online).† Also, smoking tobacco in any form are it cigarettes, cigars or pipe, has been found to considerably enhance the chance of dying from cancers of larynx, oral cavity, esophagus and lungs (CDC: Online). Cigarette smoking is responsible for one in every five deaths in the United States of America (CDC: Online). Cigarette smoking claims 443,000 lives every ear out of which 49,000 deaths are attributed to exposure to second hand smoke (CDC: Online). Men smoking cigarettes are 10 times more likely to die of bronchitis and emphysema and are 22 times more vulnerable to lung cancer (CDC: Online). The magnitude of the loss to human resources in the United States of America by cigarette smoking gets amply clear when one considers the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s claims that, â€Å"An estimated 46 million people, or 20.6 percent of all adults (aged 18 years and older), in the United States smoke cigarettes (Online).† Considering these figures one could also estimate the burden on the national and local healthcare systems that could be traced direct ly to cigarette smoking. So, when the government bodies are themselves aware of the health consequences of cigarette smoking on the nation’s population, considering the statistics provided by them, the Federal government should not have a problem or excuse regarding coming out with a blanket ban on the sale and marketing of cigarettes. In the