Hey everyone!
So I know I usually post on Sunday but I wanted to get a head start this weekend plus I had an idea about a topic. I am not a smoker and never have been. My mom's dad died when she was 11 from lung cancer so she always made it clear to me and my sisters that if she ever found out we smoked she would kill us faster then the cancer could. Lately though I have noticed that I am becoming the minority in my friends that don't smoke. More and more of them are lighting up to deal with stress, because they are drinking 'and only smoke when they drink', or just because it started out of habit and became an addiction. It seems that everywhere I go on campus students are smoking, do they not realize the consequences they could be causing to their lungs? I found an article that showed that one third of college students are smoking. The percentage of smoking teens is up from 28% in 1997 to 33% today. Although this is not a drastic increase it does show that the amount of teens smoking is going up.
The reason I thought to post about this is because earlier I blogged about if things like eating disorders should be covered and now I am wondering if insurance companies should be required to cover the medical expenses people get from smoking. I mean the cigarette companies explain on each pack that smoking leads to cancer so when people decide to light up shouldn't they take responsibility for the consequences? I mean it doesn't seem fair that companies could not cover someone born with a disease they did nothing to cause but will cover chemo treatments for people who decided to smoke a pack a day. I do know that some employers require that their employees don't smoke as a way to help with their insurance prices, but like I said it doesn't seem fair that people with chronic diseases they have had since birth, or did nothing to deserve have to pay a higher price then people who may have caused their problems. What do you think?
I feel exactly the same about the whole smoking issue. I've never even held a cigarette in my whole life, but it seems like more and more of my friends are smokers. I don't know if this is just a generalization or what, but I feel that ISU has a LOT of smokers. I don't care if people smoke--it's their choice. But, I do care when it is being blown in my face or something obnoxious like that.
ReplyDeleteI use to get physically sick from the smell of cigarette smoke. I don't know why or how, but even the smallest hint of cigarettes made me puke. I've been able to control it a lot better from knowing tricks that can stop myself from getting sick, but it will still happen. The worst part is when I'm in class and someone who smokes heavily sits near me.
I knew an employer who refused to hire smokers because it took time away from the work they had to do. All those smoke breaks are not entitled unless you work 4 hours, then you got 15 minutes to smoke and take a break. While some smokers he hired tried to conceal it, you could tell they were on edge every time the clock was about to hit the 4 hour mark on their shift.
I think insurance companies have no choice but to treat smoking related problems like cancer, because while a person may be identified as a smoker, there could be other reasons that they developed cancer such as hereditary, cancer spreading from a previous area, etc. But yeah, your argument stems from the question of whether our health is a responsibility of the individual or society. Tough one!
Great post!!