10 reasons smoking is not cool

If you don’t smoke, congratulations. Smoking is about as cool as sticking your hand into a food processor. Here are ten reasons why you should never start, or if you have, why you should stop.

The Marlboro man died of lung cancer. That cool guy you used to see in the ads, Wayne McLaren, died in 1997 after a long battle against lung cancer. Needless to say, he was a heavy smoker.

Cigarettes make your breath smell. Yes, they do. Kissing you, after you’ve had a cigarette is almost like licking out an ashtray. If you smoke and it’s been a while since someone kissed you, start wondering why.

If you break a leg, you’ll be laid low. If you smoke, bone fractures can take 70 percent longer to heal than they do in non-smokers. If you’re keen on sport, this should be a consideration.

Smoking causes impotence. Now there’s a reason why you shouldn’t start. Smoking reduces peripheral vascular flow and the blood flow necessary to attain an erection may become blocked. This seems to be a very high price to pay for a cigarette.

Getting cold feet? Smokers often have cold feet and hands as a result of poor circulation. Components of cigarette smoke block the transfer of life-giving oxygen throughout the body.

Don't let your fingers do the walking. Would you let someone run their fingers through your hair if they were yellow and smelly and nicotine-stained? Get the picture?

It doesn’t make you look cool. All it does do is to make you look like a 13-year-old who is prepared to sacrifice his health to look like a 15-year-old. And that behind the bicycle shed. There are better ways to make yourself look older or to make yourself feel like you’re living on the edge.

Ever heard an old person with a smoker’s cough? That deep rattle, that hacking, wheezing strain to rid the lungs of yesterday’s muck. How attractive is that? Is that what you want to sound like one day?

Non-smokers get the best restaurant seats. The smoking section is usually small, smells hideous and is often tucked in behind the counter and the ladies’ toilet.

Smoking is expensive. Somebody who smokes a packet of cigarettes a day, could buy a plane ticket to London every December for what they spend on getting their lungs dirty.