kick the habit Essay -- essays research papers

Most people know that smoking tobacco can cause lung cancer, but what they do not know is that it can cause many other cancers and illnesses. It is not enough to eat healthy and workout regularly, if you keep that bad habit then you are just limiting yourself from your full potential and performance. In our profession it is vital that we are able to perform at our peak when it counts, lives may depend on us and we need to take that into serious consideration every time we put a cigarette to our mouth. Diseases, moral, overall appearance, are just some of the things affected by smoking cigarettes. You not only hurt yourself when you smoke, you are hurting everyone else around you.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is not enough just to talk about working out and eating healthy in the fire service, in some cases it is hard just to implement that into a firefighters routine. A firefighters life expectancy is already lower than that of a person that is not in the fire service, a smokers life expectancy is at least 8 years lower than that of a person that does not smoke. When you combine these two together you are just asking for an early grave. It is a proven fact that smokers die sooner than non-smokers, this results in thousands of dollars lost in social security taxes which inevitably ends up in the non smokers pocket. Cigarette tax is more money from the smoker to the non-smoker. A firefighters health is vital to his profession meaning that he is not able to afford to be ill while at work. On average smokers miss about seven days of work a year while the non-smoker only misses on average of four. That’s over twenty-five percent of work a year that a smoker misses compared to a non-smoker. I don’t know about anybody else but I would want a partner that I could depend on and be confident in when it comes down to crunch time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cardiovascular disease is the biggest disease leading to death as a result due to smoking. As we grow older our arteries harden up and we get cholesterol and other fat deposits clogging our arteries leaving them narrow or even blocked. Smoking accelerates this process rapidly and blood clots are two to four times more likely to form. Cardiovascular disease comes in many forms and they are more likely to occur to people who smoke regularly. Coronary thrombosis, Cerebral thrombosis, high blood pressure, kidney... ...und you and it could also be a turnoff to a possible employer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many of us in the fire service did not get into this profession for the money or glamour or anything other than the reward that it provides at the end of every hard working day. We put our lives on the line every time that siren rings, we want to help people and our rewards come from lives being saved and keeping people out of danger. As a team we need to remain strong not only for ourselves but for each other. Being physically fit and keeping a clean and healthy body are major factors that contribute to our success. Its like the old saying â€Å"you are only as strong as your weakest link†. Take for instance a crew is fighting a fire and your bottle runs out after ten minutes, then the team has to leave because of your inability to stay healthy. The fire grows more intense and out of control because you were not prepared. We depend on one another so we each individually need to make sure that we are prepared each and every time that we step on that truck. So remember when you smoke you are not only hurting yourself, you are also hurting everyone else around you.