If someone
in your family smokes, you have a problem.
Why?
Because
cigarette (and cigar) smoke is one of the most common forms of pollution
on the planet. It's one you're bound to have come across even if no one
in your family smokes. Smoke from cigarettes harms everyone's health.
It even harms people if they don't smoke themselves but
breathe other people's smoke. So if someone in your family does
smoke, why not see if you can help
them to stop?
Smoking does no one any good. The best thing is not to start in the first
place because smokers find it very hard to give up. They get hooked on
stuff in tobacco called nicotine. Nicotine itself is a poison. But the
real nasties in tobacco smoke are chemical things called carcinogens.
They cause cancer and loads of other diseases which kill millions of people
every year, mostly smokers but also people who don't smoke.
Why do
people smoke? I don't know; do you? None of my cool penguin friends do.
Nor does my friend Jessica, who quit smoking and started a great website
called ucanbreathe
to help other smokers quit and show how crazy it is to start!