To the Editor:
I believe the federal government’s recent age limit increase on cigarette products to 21 is necessary and beneficial. According to www.cancer.org about half of all Americans who keep smoking will die because of the habit. Each year more than 480,000 people in America die from illnesses related to tobacco use. This means each year smoking causes about 20 percent of all deaths in America. The media unfairly attacks gun use. However, smoking cigarettes kills more Americans than guns, alcohol, car accidents, HIV and all illegal drugs combined. Smoking shortens male smokers’ lives by about 12 years and female smokers’ lives by about 11 years. Smoking causes much more than cancer. Smoking damages nearly every organ in the body, including the lungs, heart, blood vessels, reproductive organs, mouth, skin, eyes and bones. Smoking accounts for about 30 percent of all cancer deaths in America, including about 80 percent of all lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and is one of the hardest cancers to treat.
Smoking also negatively affects and costs those who don’t smoke. Smoking while pregnant harms the unborn baby and results in lower birth weight and a less healthy baby. We don’t know how many forest fires have been caused by smokers throwing or dropping their cigarette out their car window. Home fires have also resulted from smokers falling asleep while smoking. Parents have discouraged their children from smoking by telling them they will have a harder time finding a date if they smoke because no one wants to kiss an ashtray. One pastor said smoking is a big waste of money but it won’t send you to the fires of Hell. However, you may smell like you just left Hell.
Smoking destroyed my mother’s health and continues to destroy the health of millions. If you smoke pray and seek Jesus and Jesus will help you break this addiction and sin over your body. “People smoke for the nicotine, but they die from the tar.” It would be better and wiser to get their nicotine from gum. Americans are less healthy physically and spiritually than ever before. The average American is overweight and weighs 20 pounds more than the average American 40 years ago. This is the future health for all who love Jesus and have Jesus as Savior according to Revelation 21. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away!”

D.D. Nave
Elizabethton