EFFECTS OF SMOKING

EFFECTS OF SMOKING

According to the CDC, cigarette smoking leads to over 480,000 deaths every year in the US, which is approximately one in every five deaths that occur in the country (CDC, 2020). The WHO estimates that tobacco kills more than eight million people every year, making it one of the most significant dangers to the public health the world has ever faced. Of all the deaths caused by tobacco, seven million are due to direct tobacco use, whereas approximately 1.2 million are due to exposure of the non-smokers to second-hand smoke (WHO, 2019).

There are more than 7000 chemicals in Tobacco smoke. At least 250 of the chemicals in tobacco smoke can cause harm, while about 69 have been proved to cause cancer. Most of the 7000 chemicals in tobacco smoke are a toxic mix that creates poisons (UDHSS, 2010). When the chemicals in tobacco get into the tissues of the body, cause harm. Therefore, every time an individual smoke, the body has to enhance a mechanism of healing due to damage. Eventually, the frequent damage causes disease.

The chemicals in tobacco smoke rapidly reach the lungs of a smoker immediately after inhalation. Once the substances reach the lungs, they move into the pulmonary circulation and are circulated to all body tissues. The chemicals cause inflammation of vital organs such as lungs, blood vessels and other delicate tissues. Frequent smoking due to addiction leads to constant inflammation and damage to the cells and tissues of the body. Therefore, the immune system becomes compromised. With time, the cells that defend the body, such as white blood cells increases indicating that the immune system continually produces the cells to protect the body. Stress caused by the constant attack on the body and overwhelming the immune system can cause disease in every part of the body.

Components of Tobacco

There are about 600 components in cigarettes which, when burned, create more than 7000 chemicals. Cigarette smoke contains gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and nitrogen oxides. Other compounds include acrolein, benzene, some N-nitrosamines are volatile liquid chemicals that accompany the vapour of the smoke. Nicotine, phenol, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS), and some tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) are found in the solid particles that get suspended in the tobacco smoke (Harris and JE, 1996). PAHS are locally acting carcinogens and induce cancers of the lungs, trachea, and mammary glands (CDC, 2010). Heterocyclic compounds such as furan cause tumours of the liver. N-nitrosamines affects several tissues and induces tumours of the pancreas, nasal cavity, and liver.

Persistent smoking leads to severe harm

According to scientists, the risk to diseases due to tobacco smoke increases after smoking for about 20 years. However, tobacco smokers who quit by the age of 30 could get their health restored to become as good as those of non-smokers. Nicotine is a highly addictive component of tobacco. Nicotine leads to both physical and mental addiction. Once the cigarette smoke is inhaled, it rapidly circulates through the lungs into the heart and to the brain.

Health consequences of smoking among women

Smoking mainly leads to tumours of the oropharynx and bladder among women (CDC, 2020). Smoking causes premature death among women. Besides, cigarette smoking primarily leads to lung cancer among women. In the US, 90% of all deaths caused by lung cancer was related to tobacco smoking. Scientific evidence also proves that female smokers increase their risk of acquiring cancers of the pancreas and kidney. Also, smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease among women. There is an increased risk of ischemic stroke among women caused by blood clots in the arteries that supply the brain. Female smokers also risk getting subarachnoid haemorrhage.

Furthermore, other than the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), several studies suggest that cigarette smoking increases the risk of painful menstruation. Generally, smoking delays conception and predisposes to both primary and secondary fertility. Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of complications during pregnancy, premature births, low birth weight infants, stillbirths, and infant mortality.

Smoking damages DNA

The body’s DNA controls the healthy growth and function of the cell. Destruction to the DNA may cause uncontrollable growth of cells which causes cancer. The chemicals in tobacco smoke change the way cell processes instructions. Besides, cancer patients who smoke do not get the benefits of chemotherapy since smoking increases the rate at which tumours grow.

Second-hand smoke

Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills places where people smoke when they are enclosed spaces. Second-hand smoke is typical in restaurants, pubs, offices, or any situations where people burn tobacco products such as water-pipes, bidis. Studies show that there is no safe exposure to tobacco smoke even if second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke leads to severe cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that include coronary heart disease and lung cancer. Second-hand smoke increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome and low birth weight babies. Moreover, second-hand smoking can cause complications during pregnancy.

The WHO estimates that approximately half of children frequently breathe air filled with tobacco smoke in public places. As a result, second-hand smoke leads to about 1.2 million premature deaths every year. Besides, the WHO approximates that 65,000 children die every year from diseases related to second-hand tobacco smoke.

Toxicity

According to the WHO, some tobacco ingredients may be harmful when smoked solely as well as in combination with other substances, for example, ammonia, taurine, and caffeine. Often, colouring agents added to induce anaesthetic effects increases the toxicity of the end product. Furthermore, some common additives have the potential of changing the physical properties of tobacco smoke that include the size of the particles emitted by the smoke and thus of those being inhaled. The size of the particles inhaled during smoking determines the levels of nicotine and other tobacco chemicals that reach the lungs, which in turn determines the levels of nicotine that enters the circulation. Also, burning tobacco produces new products of combustion which exposes the body to harm due to adverse toxicity. Burning tobacco may also produce pharmacologically active compounds such as acetaldehyde a carcinogen produced by burning of sugars added to cigarettes as sweeteners. Like nicotine, acetaldehyde enhances the addictive potential of tobacco products.

Conclusion

In conclusion, smoking cigarette can kill or cause premature death. Cigarettes are harmful and rapidly damages the human body. Moreover, manufacturers of tobacco products alter the ingredients to increase addictiveness which generally increases the potential for smoking to caused disease. Compounds like ammonia are used to increase free-base nicotine in cigarettes leading to a high level of circulating nicotine in smokers. Menthol and eugenol cause numbness to the throat to prevent tobacco smokers from feeling the aggravating effects of tobacco smoke but with significant physiological effects on breathing. Tobacco imposes a shocking rate of human and economic tragedy. Anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and pictorial health warnings protect children and other groups that are susceptible to using tobacco and increases the number of those who quit smoking.