Charlie Brown is famous for his security blanket that he is seen carrying in every frame of the comic strip that features him. I felt the same way with cigarettes which I embraced at an early age. Being a child of small stature, I was certain that smoking would make me appear older than I was. Over a decade later, I would come to realize that they do indeed make a person age faster than ever. No they do not cause cancer, but that isn't reason enough to stop smoking.

Why Smoke?

Smoking a cigarette is akin to sucking a nipple or gripping a security blanket. It acts as a pacifier; the mere act of gripping a cigarette and the ensuing ritual of lighting it and slowing inhaling the smoke into one's lungs. I'd like to raise two questions here at this point. One. Why do we smoke? Two. How many is too many?

What happens when I smoke?

In today's ozone depleted environment, our lungs are combating the constant influx of toxic vapours and noxious industrial wastes apart from your everyday exhaust fumes. The tiny cilia that line the inner walls of our lungs are constantly repelling the carbon particulates that threaten to accumulate within. The danger here is that cigarette smoke burns out the cilia leaving us all but defenceless. It is reported that smoking one cigarette is equivalent to inhaling the fumes of a motor car for 1.4 kilometres. So what is the 'safe' amount of cigarettes one can smoke without causing harm to our body? That is subject to debate since our organs only fail after 75% of tissue is destroyed. Which means that I don't hear any complaints at 74%.

The red pill or the blue pill?

Back to the Q&A round, is reduction the answer or is the radical path of quitting altogether the way to go?  Ask yourself if it's okay to smoke 2-3 cigarettes a day or a mere 2-3 puffs of nicotine laden smoke? Or pump 50 odd cigarettes in daily with malicious intent? Personally I chose to quit. What is your choice?