Tobacco contains over 4,000 chemicals, most of which are harmful to the body. Smoking is the risk of four different types of cancer and several other illnesses. Smoking affects the lungs, heart, circulatory system, brain, and several other organs. Cigarettes and cigars can, and do, harm you physically, mentally and socially. This even includes others around you.
The main problem with smoking is how it harms you physically. Smoking harms the main organs and the systems of your body. The most important organ of all affected is the brain, the more you smoke the more likely you are to have a stroke or a tumor may form in your brain from the chemicals in the tobacco.
According to studies performed by the North East Valley Division General Practice, your heart is at great risk as well heart disease and coronary occlusion (heart attack) are 25 percent more likely to occur in smoking males. You may be diagnosed with emphysema and asthma because smoking affects your lungs more than any other organ. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers.
Also a 20 a day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210 grams) of tar a year (Quit Smoking, Stop!
, 2001-2005). The circulatory system is also greatly affected- vessel damage, gangrene, narrowing of the arteries, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and peripheral vascular disease in hands and feet. Diabetes, stained skin and nails, stained teeth are all other affects of smoking.
For female smokers' menstrual problems, early menopause, higher risk of osteoporosis, fertility problems (poorer outcome), and miscarriage, pregnant outside the uterus, retard growth and malformations. On top of everything mentioned, all are susceptible to cancer as well as the stomach, anus, pancreas, lip, mouth, throat, bladder, and kidney. For women the cervix, uterus, and vuluar are all vulnerable as well. Smoking also affects smokers mentally and socially.
First, cigarettes and cigars contain a highly addictive substance called, nicotine. Three out of four people who use tobacco daily continue to do so because, they find it hard to quit.
Then with the withdraw of nicotine the body manifests irritability, anxiety, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, sleep disturbance, headaches, dizziness, tremors, nausea, and upset bowels.
According to “Good Housekeeping,” the best way to stop smoking is to not start in the first place. Mentally smoking makes the brain think that your stomach is not hungry (loss of appetite) so therefore instead of eating a meal a person will smoke a cigarette.
Socially, smoking is now starting to be frowned upon by society due to the smell, looks, and smokers have difficulty keeping up with healthy people. Smoking not only affects the smokers themselves but all the people around the smoke.
People that are around other people smoking are inhaling what doctors like to call "second hand smoke," and it is becoming more recognized in society as such. The second hand smoke contains thousands of chemicals the worst of which are carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and cyanide. These chemicals are the reason why smoking has been banned from workplaces for over thirty years now.
Another extremely dangerous chemical that most people are affected by in second hand smoke is hydrogen cyanide. According to the Health Canada's Tobacco Control Programme, it damages the lungs with each breath of it taken in by the person. The second hand smoke has been measured to have one hundred and sixty times the average amount to be considered normal.
Opening a window, air purifiers, or ventilation machines do not adequately protect you from second hand smoke. Actually, there is no known safe level of exposure to second hand smoke it causes at one thousand deaths every year in Canada alone. Surveys conducted by NSW Health show that the common response to being in the vicinity of second hand smoke is to ask the person to put it out. Yet even after it is out the smoke remains in the environment and still is toxic. The smoke stays in your clothes, hair, and even stays in the air after ventilation.
Smoking in essence is not good for anybody at anytime or for any one who is around the smoker. It harms people physically, mentally, and socially which are the three groups which define someone's health which are all brought down by smoking. Cigarettes and cigars are dangerous and harmful to people's health and the best way to stop smoking is to never start.
