Videos of smokers, a two-year old and a 4-year old kid, each puffing 40 sticks a day, came to be a hot topic recently. Video posts gained enormous numbers of visits, and were flooded by comments condemning the causes of the children's current addiction. Following that is the hot debate regarding health organizations' move of targeting women smokers on World No Tobacco Day. Whatever the impact of these two issues to the anti-smoking campaign and the tobacco industry, the truth about the health consequences of cigarette smoking to children, women, unborn babies, and men, remain fatal.

Each person has the freedom of choosing whether he or she wants to live a smoke-free life or not. True, indeed. Their lives are in their hands. This is the reason why there are people who do not like anyone telling others what to do and what to choose, not even the health authorities in lab coats . They hate it when the government or someone says, stop smoking. On the other hand, they react slimly to cigarette endorsements that basically sell death to everyone. Of course, these people just want to air their opinion just as how anti-smokers can do their thing.

Let us reconsider why there's a need to keep preaching to people the ill effects of cigarette smoking.

Consider who benefits and who suffers. The government, the tobacco companies, the tobacco workers, and the ill economy are the ones that benefit, whereas each smoker and every human inhaling second hand smoke suffer. Everybody benefits except the victims. They pay for a luxury that ultimately takes hundreds of thousands of lives every year. Huge amount of money that can be used for the more important needs is spent on cigarettes. Does tobacco industry help the economy in that way? No. It actually plays an enormous part in ruining the very basic aspect of economy, the consumers. At the end, the consumers will become broke because of medical bills. On the other hand, those that are unaffected by the health problems brought by smoking continue to suck the consumers' profit until there is nothing left in the consumers.

Smoking kills. This undeniable fact doesn't give the conscience of businessmen and government officials any shiver for one simple reason of making money from the victims of tobacco. Poor people got swept away by advertisements. Helpless victims can't resist cigarette addiction. Pity those who only realized smoking was never a wise choice when it's already too late. With the help of anti-tobacco advocates, certain percentage of the population is kept away from the deadly vice.

Out of concern to the personal interest of others, people who know of the truth about the harmful habit will continue encouraging smokers stop smoking. Cancer, emphysema, clogged vessels, heart failure, and bronchitis are just a few of the many harmful effects of smoking that can be undone if one listens and stops smoking. You too can take part in making a difference, even if you're not a medical professional in those white scrubs .