With finals approaching and a looming pile of homework created by hours of procrastinating on Facebook.com, we’re starting to feel the stress. Okay, scratch that, we’re starting to feel even more stressed than usual. During this period of heightened nerves and back-to-back term papers, it’s common for students to unwind by smoking a cigarette, or two, or a pack a day. While we understand this need for relaxation, Ed Board asks you during this difficult time to stop smoking entirely.

In the spirit of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, held the first Thursday of every November, and realizing that all those reasons why you considered quitting previously might be hard to remember at this time, we remind you that smoking is bad. And not in the it’s-cool-to-be-bad way.

First of all, it kills you. According to Seek.com, otherwise known as the truth campaign, one out of every three smokers dies from a smoking-related disease, and there have been 12 million tobacco related deaths in the United States since 1964. Overall, tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires and auto accidents combined. These diseases caused by cigarettes are long and painful, in addition to putting an enormous burden on your loved ones both emotionally and financially.

Don’t value your life? What about your friends? Smoking also kills the people around you. Over 50,000 people a year die from secondhand smoke in the United States.

If you happen not to die or kill someone with your smoking, chances are highly likely that you’ll experience serious health problems. Of current smokers in the United States, 46,000 have lung cancer from smoking and 1,273,000 have emphysema.

All these are long-term effects, and perhaps you’re of the breed who chooses to live each day as if it were your last. Well, we all know what everyone wants to do on their last day on Earth. While we don’t have exact numbers to back this claim up, Ed Board agrees that you have a much higher probability of getting someone to kiss you if you don’t have rotting teeth and putrid breath.

And for all this – cancer, emphysema, ugly hair, teeth and skin, bad breath – you’re spending your (often) hard-earned cash, enough of it to feed hundreds of starving children. On average, a pack of cigarettes costs $4.12. Even we, journalism/English majors, can do the math. Smoke a pack a week? That’s $214.24 a year. Smoke a pack a day? $1,503.80 a year. To compare, it takes 19 cents to buy a healthy meal for a school child in a poor country, according to the United Nations.

There’s no argument to be made for the benefits of smoking cigarettes, because there are no benefits. You have every reason in the world to stop. Now all you need is a little willpower, and, perhaps, some yoga, to be smoke-free.

For more information abou the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, call 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit its Web site at www. cancer.org.