The largest cause of preventable death in America is tobacco-related death. Half a million Americans die each year due to tobacco use or exposure to secondhand smoke. The issue of secondhand smoke exposure extends to America's children.
What is President Obama doing about this murderer lurking in our midst? Where is his outrage? Where are the string of executive orders aimed at stopping smoking once and for all in America by prohibiting tobacco products from being sold anywhere? It's obvious that American's can't stop smoking on their own.
Is it up to America to prevent self-inflicted injuries?
Is it up to America to prevent self-inflicted injuries?
(USGOV Centers for Disease Control) Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. Each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46.6 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. Smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipes also have deadly consequences, including lung, larynx, esophageal, and oral cancers.
The harmful effects of smoking do not end with the smoker. An estimated 88 million nonsmoking Americans, including 54% of children aged 3–11 years, are exposed to secondhand smoke. Even brief exposure can be dangerous because nonsmokers inhale many of the same poisons in cigarette smoke as smokers.
Secondhand smoke exposure causes serious disease and death, including heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and sudden infant death syndrome, acute respiratory infections, ear problems, and more frequent and severe asthma attacks in children. Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, an estimated 3,000 nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer, more than 46,000 die of heart disease, and about 150,000–300,000 children younger than 18 months have lower respiratory tract infections.
In 2011, there were 33,687 vehicle related traffic deaths; 42,917 deaths due to poisoning, and 31,672 deaths due to firearms. Balance that against the 443,000 who will die from self-inflicted smoking related illness and tell me where our national spotlight should be.
Personally, I don't care whether people smoke or not. I'm not a progressive nor am I a liberal and I feel that people should have a right to smoke if they are so inclined. I choose not to smoke, but I am not a crusader on a mission to bend everyone to my will.
President Obama stated that firearms should be eliminated and that one firearm death in America each year is one too many. Is he willing to say the same thing about tobacco? Or alcohol - his alternate drug of choice? Liberals have no credibility because of their penchant for picking and choosing. The number of firearms related deaths is TINY and almost statistically insignificant when compared to tobacco related death. The ownership of firearms is protected by the Bill of Rights -- and tobacco is not.