“WARNING: Tobacco is harmful to your health.” This is the universal message on tobacco products. In what ways exactly is it harmful? Below is a list of 10 ways it is harmful to health and this is why you should say NO to Tobacco.

1. It causes Halitosis
   The use of tobacco can lead to bad breath. Bad breath may affect one’s social life including how one relates to the closest around them. It also causes worry, anxiety and self-consciousness. All this can be prevented by saying NO to tobacco.
2. It causes Respiratory Disease
   The lungs are healthy when one breathes in clean air, when one breathes in the polluted air from cigarette smoke directly or indirectly, the air-sacs in the lungs are damaged this can cause Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Smoking can also trigger asthma attacks.
3. It causes Lung Cancer
   Smoking exponentially increases the risk for developing lung cancer. Lung cancer may cause difficulty breathing, chest pain, coughing with blood, weight loss and ultimately may result in the loss of one’s life.
4. It is associated with Oral Cancer
   Tobacco use is a major risk factor for oral cancer with 80 percent of individuals who develop oral cancer using tobacco in the form or smoking, chewing, or snuff. The risk doubles if one drinks alcohol as well. The cancerous growths in the mouth and throat can be life-threatening especially when they are not diagnosed.
5. It increases the Risk of COVID-19
   Tobacco use results in one bringing their hands to their face several times a day. This unhygienic practice increases the risk of introducing microbes, inclusive of the novel coronavirus to the body. There is no cure for covid-19 and no documentary standardized, proven, and generally agreed-upon treatment of the virus to date.
6. It is Expensive
   Few individuals have taken the time to calculate just how much money they spent on cigarettes. The average smoker needs a pack of cigarettes per day. In a third world country where one pack of cigarettes costs about 3 USD, by the end of a year one will have spent over a 1 000 USD on the habit. As if to add insult to injury, the number of cigarettes needed per day for one to maintain the same feeling of high keeps increasing with the years so the cost keeps rising year after year.
7. It Endangers Children
   Those who choose to smoke inadvertently endanger those around them. Vulnerable groups of individuals like children often have no choice when it comes to their parents smoking habits. They are at risk of breathing second hand smoke which can lead to severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
8. It is Bad for the Environment
   Both the manufacture and smoking of tobacco result in air pollution. The smoke and the chemicals released into the air when one smokes contribute to the depletion of the ozone layer. This matters because the ozone layer offers protection from harmful cancer-causing Ultraviolet rays.
9. It is Harmful to Animals and Plants
   Cigarette butts are liter and are often eventually dumped on the soil, this results in harmful chemicals seeping into the soil and eventually into water bodies which plants, animals and human beings rely on.
10. It Enslaves You
    One of the reasons cited by those who use tobacco products initially is that they are free to do whatever they want to. But this freedom is an illusion which soon fades away when tobacco becomes one’s master and one becomes dependent on it.

So why not make the decision today to stay away from tobacco? Yes, you can say NO. Yes, you can choose to be healthy today.