One of the biggest and most problematic health problems in our society is smoking. Smoking is currently the leading cause of death in our country, due to its harmful and addictive contents, such as nicotine and tobacco. Although millions of people die from it every year, smoking is also the most preventable cause of death. Without smoking, huge amounts of money and lives will be saved. I believe our country should ban smoking and cigarette production in order to keep a healthier nation, help save the environment, and prevent the nearly 1,000 deaths caused by fires each year. My first topic concerns the risks and resulting health problems. smoking tobacco causes. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Tobacco use costs the United States more than $150 billion a year in health care. They cause around 443,000 deaths each year. They cause many cancers such as chronic lung disease, emphysema, bronchitis and heart disease. Smoking causes many other types of cancer, including cancers of the throat, mouth, nasal cavity, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and cervix. uterus, and even leukemia has been linked to smoking. Additionally, smokers are up to six times more likely to suffer a heart attack than non-smokers, and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. Smoking also causes most cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Additionally, approximately 49,400 deaths are due to exposure to second-hand smoke. 3,000 non-smoking adults die each year from illnesses caused by exposure to second-hand smoke. My second topic is the impact of smoking on the environment. Nearly 600 million forest trees are destroyed each year to provide paper... more than twice as likely as young non-smoking parents to become smokers. More than 90 percent of adult smokers started smoking as teenagers. A 2001 survey found that 69.4 percent of teenage smokers said they had never been asked for proof of their age when buying cigarettes in a store. The same survey found that 62.4 percent of respondents were allowed to purchase cigarettes even when the retailer knew they were under eighteen. Cigarettes are very harmful to smokers, non-smokers and the environment. People who smoke show how inconsiderate they are towards others. Even those who don't smoke in public places are selfish. They do not consider the effects that smoking could have on them and how it will affect their family and the environment. Cigarettes cause hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths every year and that is why cigarettes must be made illegal..