Why Smoke?

There are many activities that people participate in that are damaging to themselves and those around them. I read the article, “The Negative Effects of Smoking on Bones, Joints, and Healing” by Paul Paryski, MA. He divides the article into three sections: Introduction, Results, and Conclusion. He uses these three categories to organize his facts about the negative effects of smoking on the human body.

He starts off by stating that, “There are roughly 50 million smokers in the United States in spite of a great deal of publicity about the negative effects of smoking on health.” (par.1) By beginning such an article with such a statement, he draws the reader to already reconsider the logic of choosing to smoke. He continues to address how cigarette smoking is becoming rapidly more popular in other countries as well as the United States. He states that they “can least afford either the cost of cigarettes or the cost of their negative effect on health.” (par.1) This is saying that many countries prefer to take part in cigarette smoking, not noting how it effects their health. Also, most struggling countries have so many other health issues to take care of that the effects of smoking might get pushed aside.

The next few paragraphs in the Introduction section talk about the effects that smoking has on health that are hardly ever addressed to the public or by doctors. He says, “The effects of smoking on the musculoskeletal system (bones, joints, muscles) have not been the subject of much publicity, and it has not been given the same attention as other smoking related diseases.” (I.e. cancer) (par.3) The article continues with facts about studies showing that smoking can be directly related to healing. By using information from scientists and other doctors, he makes his claim full of clarity. It makes his supportive evidence more effective.
The author starts off the Results part of the article by stating a statistic. He says, “Of 82 studies, 44 strongly suggest that smoking had a very serious negative impact on the musculoskeletal system.” (par.7) He then lists a few of the 500 different poisonous gases that are released into the lungs during early smoking. Most of them listed are common, yet harmful gases. He continues to talk about the analysis of a study regarding the effect of those harmful chemical and gases. All of the things listed are all horrifyingly painful and would be terrible to live with.

He then concludes by simply stating, “It should be remembered that annually over 500,000 deaths in the United States and millions throughout the world, are caused by smoking.” (par.11)

Not only does this article give reason for why smoking is incredibly harmful, but it gives facts and statistics to support the argument. The author also cites a credible and authoritative source (a book written by and orthopedic surgeon) to back up his facts. If people would read this article, their logic and thoughts towards smoking would be changed. If the reader was not a smoker, they would just be assured more that smoking is something that is extremely harmful to everyone. If the reader was a smoker, the facts and ideas stated in the article would influence him to rethink his reasons for why he smokes and thus causing his logic to change. Not only does the author prove once again that smoking is harmful, but that it has hidden damages that it causes. Many people think that the only thing that smoking does is cause cancer and shorten lives, however, there are many things that occur in the human body that many are not aware of. The author opens their eyes to the many other life threatening problems smoking can cause. Smoking not only can damage and eventually kill you, but can also hurt those around you.

Paryski, Paul. "The Negative Effects of Smoking on bones, Joints and Healing." Health and Age.com. N.p, 18 June 2009.Web. 25 September 2009.

The musculoskeletal effects of smoking. SE. Porter, EN. Hanley Jr, J Am Acad Orthop Surg, 2001, vol.9, pp.9--17.