Good Reasons to Give Up Smoking

Welcome to Good Reasons to Give Up Smoking

If we were meant to smoke we’d have a chimney in our heads. That’s my view, anyway. I started this dreadful habit at high school. By the time I took my first job at fifteen I was regularly purchasing cigarettes. It was the accepted way of life in the 1950s. It was a sign of maturity.

At thirty-seven I wrote the essay which you can read below – but I didn’t give it up smoking. Not then, anyway. However, after a year’s stint on MacQuarie Island as an Antarctic expeditioner, where I has access to free tobacco – I used to puff on Half Corona Cigars down there – I was still into smoking. Then, in my mid-forties, I gave it away. Just quit. At seventy-five, I’m so glad that I did. Here is the essay I wrote way back in May 1973.

Some years ago I decided to give up the tobacco habit. My reasons for doing this were many. Firstly, I learned that smoking is bad for one’s health. In the short-term, the habitual smoker is subject to shortness of breath and a wracking cough. In the long-term he is liable to end up with cancer of the throat or lungs, or with heart disease.

My second reason was financial: this habit costs real money, big money when one considers it overall. Depending upon the rate at which the smoker consumes a pack of cigarettes, anything from $3 to $7 in a week (back in 1973 that was a lot) Even ten cigarettes a day will amount to around $130 over a period of one year.

The third reason was the inconvenience of being a smoker. A smoker must always have access to (a) tobacco, (b) matches or lighter, (c) when indoors, an astray. Also, in many cases, he has to ensure that his habit does not offend others. That is, he doesn’t create a smoky atmosphere where a smoky atmosphere could annoy other people.

Fourth: Smoking is a messy habit. Ash and cigarette butts have to be perpetually disposed of. This causes unwarranted work. And you only have to look at an overflowing ashtray to comprehend how slovenly this habit is. It’s dirty.

Five: It’s smelly. The smoker doesn’t notice it. Others do. It gets into the fabric of clothing. It stinks the house out. Some will shun the smoker. And the non-smoker woman’s not too happy about kissing the man who smokes.

Six: Habitual cigarette, pipe or cigar smoking tends to desensitize one’s taste buds. Food, in its normal form is not longer as palatable as it should be. Many smokers, apart from not being able to enjoy food as much as they should, resort to strong sources an condiments. They apply too much pepper and salt in their attempts to savour their meals.

Seven: The psychological dependence the smoker develops towards cigarettes leaves him feeling inadequate when he is obliged to do without them. The smoker, at an important interview without access to a cigarette is under considerable stress.

These are all sound reasons why a man should not smoke. But there is yet another, and that one is rarely mentioned: fire hazard. The smoker is much more prone to leaving his matches lying around than the non-smoker. The smoker with small children is inadvertently and unbeknowingly to himself, inviting those small children to experiment with fire. They want to strike those matches like Daddy. And then there are those hundreds of cases where men and women have burned themselves to death by falling asleep whilst smoking in bed.

To sum up. I gave it up because it is expensive, inconvenient, dirty, and eventually wrecks one’s health. Also it’s downright dangerous. If you are a smoker my advice to you is give it up…give it up right now. It can be hard – but it really is worth it in the long run.

Let's hope you got something out of Good Reasons to Give Up Smoking.

Tom.