Societies of all ages are drowning in tar-like substances that many call cigarettes. According to the US National Library of Medicine, the cigarette is the deadliest artifact in the history of human civilization. Cigarettes have influenced all of society since the early 1500s. (Proctor, 2013) Although cigarettes distance oneself from reality; Cigarettes are destructive to the smoker and the peers around him because they are full of harmful, expensive, and highly addictive chemicals. Cigarettes are not only destructive to the smoker, but to everyone around him. Secondhand smoke is unfiltered smoke from the ends of people's cigarettes. Smoke can carry more than 7,000 different chemicals, all different from each other, hundreds of these chemicals are toxic and up to 70 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013) are known to cause cancer. Since secondhand smoke is a worldwide epidemic, there are many ways it can affect a person's well-being. Secondhand smoking can and will cause heart disease, lung cancer, SIDS, and many more. Passive smoking is committed when the adult or child is close to the smoker; the smoke then travels from the end of the cigarette or the person's breath over a 20-foot space and enters the victim. Heart disease is not only caused by cigarette smoking, but it is also caused by secondhand smoke. Smoking is estimated to cause 46,000 premature deaths due to heart disease among nonsmokers in the United States each year. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013) Knowing that smoking causes heart disease, many people believe that heart disease will not negatively affect the well-being of society, but what many do not know is that nonsmokers who find themselves 20 feet from a smoker will have an immediate... ... half of the paper ...... per weight m. Gale, 176. F. J. Chaloupka, K. M. (2002). Taxes, prices, and cigarette smoking: Evidence from tobacco documents and implications for tobacco companies' marketing strategies. Tobacco Control, 62-72.Jampel, S. (2013, July 13). How much does a pack of cigarettes cost now, state by state. Retrieved from The AWL: http://www.theawl.com/2013/07/what-a-pack-of-cigarettes-costs-now-state-by-stateMarcelo O. Ortells, G. E. (2010). Tobacco addiction. A biochemical model of nicotine dependence, 884-895.Proctor, R.N. (2013, May 22). Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition. Retrieved from the US National Library of Medicine: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3632991/Science News. (1994). What's in a cigarette? Tobacco companies mix hundreds of additives into their products. Science News, 10-13.UWIRE. (2013). Electronic cigarettes. UWIRE lyrics, 1.