Almost every American I’ve met has been extremely anti smoking, why is that?

30 comments

1. It’s unhealthy.

2. It’s demonized (there are plenty of Americans who smoke, it’s still a billion dollar industry in the US), but for me at least, I’m not extreme anti-smoking, smoke’m if you got’em, but don’t do it around me. I used to smoke, and it wasn’t until after I quit that I realized just how nasty I smelled all the time. That shit gets in your clothes, it stains your teeth, it gives you horrible breath… it’s just fucking nasty.

   I have no desire to be around smokers if I can help it, because the smell is just as bad as someone who doesn’t bathe.

3. Demonized? It’s extremely addictive by design and kills you.

   It stinks, people are grossed out by the breath, yellow teeth, smelly hands, and smelly hair.

   Smokers constantly litter.

   Why would anyone be pro tobacco smoking?

4. It’s terrible for your health

5. Decades long anti-smokong campaign, it’s lost its popularity.

6. Because for the last 30 years we’ve been educated about how bad smoking actually is for you and we have listened to that information. Also it’s gross, smelly, and expensive, and have several of my relatives lung cancer and/ or emphysema and it has shortened their lives. That’s why I am against it.

7. It is bad for you but unlike other vices it will directly affect others around you as well. No one likes to smell like smoke.

8. I think a good question would be why *aren’t* people anti-smoking?

9. There has been a very successful public health campaign in the US to reduce smoking. A lot of the messaging has, in addition to pointing out the terrible health risks, characterized smoking as gross, dirty, stinky etc. Undeniably, this has worked.

   Anyway my attitude on smoking is that I smoked for ten years and am glad that I quit, but also if they invented a pill that made smoking not bad for you I would start smoking again instantly lol.

10. Personally, I smoke pipes and cigars. No filters, so you get all the vitamins!

11. Almost 2 decades of anti-smoking campaigns from the government and private groups. It worked. Smoking was pushed out of fashion.

12. If you grow up with something, you just kind of take it for granted that it’s always there. If you’re introduced to it later in life, you’re more likely to form a negative opinion, especially when you’ve got millions of dollars campaigning against it

    Basically gen x and younger grew up when smoking wasn’t as common, and probably either don’t know many smokers or those that did smoke have quit.

13. Because it’s stupid and terrible. Cigarettes have ruined so many lives for no reason.

14. I never met my grandfather bc he died of emphysema from smoking.

    It smells terrible.

    It’s expensive.

    It’s sometimes so cold outside that it could kill you & I don’t want to be outside to smoking in those conditions.

    No one I know in real life smokes, so there’s no fun social element to it like there used to be.

    It’s illegal to smoke inside restaurants and bars.

    I literally can’t think of one reason I’d want to smoke cigarettes. If I were to smoke anything, I’d drive across a state border and get some legal weed.

15. My generation grew up with the DARE program, the only thing it did was prevent us from smoking cigarettes but most of us replaced it with weed

16. Aside from the very obvious health issues, there’s legitimate evidence that the tobacco industry has historically targeted children and low income communities across the globe. Kids, because they develop more nicotine receptors in their developing brain and thus most likely to become lifelong customers; low income communities because they have less access to addiction cessation tools. [They used to literally hand out cigarettes to kids in housing projects](https://publichealthlawcenter.org/sites/default/files/resources/tclc-Evans-v-Lorillard-case-study-2016.pdf). So the industry has a long history of being extremely exploitative. In fact, if your response is “it’s my choice to smoke” then congrats, you are simply reciting another tobacco industry marketing tool.

17. In addition to the health and aesthetic reasons cited, there’s been a concerted anti-smoking campaign here for as long as I can remember (which is over 50 years).

18. Speaking personally, because I grew up watching my father hack his way through his day and am now watching him slowly die of COPD. That clear it up for you?

19. Like others have said. The massive campaigns against smoking (due to the fact that smoking is awful for your health) have curbed the appeal of cigarettes. Although a large percentage of the young generation are morons and have started smoking again, just with different products.

20. It’s disgusting.

21. It’s extremely bad for you, more addictive than cocaine, and makes people stink.

22. Its massively unhealthy, smelly and produces a lot of litter. There is nothing good about smoking. (I used to be a big cigar smoker luckily never got into cigarettes)

23. It’s hazardous to your health, chemically addictive, and unlike a lot of other vices, also hazardous to the health of people around you. That’s the kicker.

    We’ve also had decades of anti-smoking ads and campaigns to broaden the knowledge of what it does to people which has been very effective.

24. Good PR campaign to warn us of the dangers of smoking. A lot of places are non-smoking now, too so the smokers have to find open air places to do it.

25. Because it causes cancer and smells like shit

26. It’s pretty fucking gross, but there is a certain allure when people like Brad Pitt or Jon Hamm do it on screen. But usually the people smokin irl are…. not those men, lmao.

27. In California a lot of people just smoke marijuana … Normally you smoke marijuana much less often than normal cigarettes and plus it’s extremely unhealthy.

28. Smoking around others is no longer considered polite. There was a time when it seemed smoking was the norm. Non-smokers we’re the exception. Public areas such as offices, and waiting rooms would always have ash trays, and there were ash trays on every restaurant table.

    Gradually this shifted. First were the “Thank you for not smoking” signs in nice clothing stores, then it became more and more acceptable to ban smoking in areas. Restaurants had smoking and no-smoking sections. This didn’t work particularly well, by the way, because smoke drifts. Places like doctors offices and business offices banned smoking. It used to be common to smoking in the waiting room, now it’s unthinkable. Bars were the last place to ban smoking, but in lots of cities they have.

    I love it. I grew up getting smoke blown in my face and having no right to complain. I don’t have to put up with that shit anymore.

29. cuz it’ll kill you and our healthcare system will fight paying for lung cancer treatments

30. There is a lot of anti-smoking advertising out there.

    But personally, I lost my father, mother, and two uncles to smoking. (Emphysema, smoking-related heart disease, and lung cancer.)