Hazardous Effect Of Smoking Essay, Research Paper

Hazardous effect of smokingThesis statement: Furthermore, the hazardous ingredients in cigarette tobacco has many dangerous effects on your health and the health of others. I. The hazardous ingredients in cigarette tobaccoA. NicotineB. Carbon MonoxideC. TarII. The diseases related to smoking cigarettesA. How cigarette smoking effects your health1. Lung Cancer2. Heart Disease3. EmphysemaB. How cigarette smoke effects others1. A pregnant woman unborn child2. Non-SmokersIII. Cigarette smoking related deathsA. Deaths in smokersB. Deaths in non-smokers 1The Dangers of Smoking Cigarettes:How Smoking Effects Your Health and OthersAccording to the American Heart Association there are an estimated 50 million Americans who smoke (1). Smokers say, by smoking relieves them of stress and relaxes and comforts them. In recent years it has been proven that the only thing smoking does is shorten a person s life. Despite, all the warnings by the surgeon general that quitting smoking may greatly reduce serious risks to your health, people still manage to find a excuse to quit smoking (American Heart Association 1). Furthermore, the hazardous ingredients in cigarette tobacco has many dangerous effects on your health and the health of others. First of all, there are many hazardous ingredients in cigarette tobacco. Some of the ingredients are poisonous and addictive. Cigarette smoke produces thousands of chemicals that are hazardous to a smoker s health. There are over 4000 chemicals produced by a burning cigarette. At least 200 chemicals are known to be poisonous to people health (Clayman 50). Filters help to block and reduce some of the chemicals, but they will not stop them completely. Nicotine is addictive also one of the most dangerous ingredients in cigarette tobacco. In fact, the President of the United States, has recently declared nicotine an addictive (CNN 2). Cigarette smokers are addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes just like a junkie is addicted to heroin or cocaine. When a person smokes a cigarette the body reacts immediately to the chemical nicotine. For instance, it requires less than 10 seconds for inhaled nicotine to reach the brain (Henningfield 35). 2Although nicotine is not the only reason people smoke they are also get hooked on the taste, smell and the feel of cigarettes. Nicotine begins to effect a smoker s blood pressure, the flow of blood from their heart, the heart beat and breathing rate. Next, cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, the same poisonous gases released from a car exhaust pipe (Henningfield 33). Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless highly toxic gas that reduces the amount of oxygen the blood can carry. Combined with the effects produced by the nicotine, it creates an imbalance in the demand for oxygen by the cells and the amount of oxygen the blood is able to supply. In this case, carbon monoxide will damage the inner walls of the arteries that encourages the buildup of fat. Which cause the vessels of the arteries to narrow and harden, nicotine also is a contribute to the happening. Tar is another chemical produced from cigarette smoke. Tar contains at least 30 cancer causing irritants. Tar is defined, as the total particulate matter (TPM), minus water and nicotine (qtd in Henningfield 31). Tar is a mixture of several substances that condense into a sticky substance on the lung. Tobacco manufactures have produced a cigarette that is low tar and low nicotine to reduce the chance of cancer. But are these cigarettes less hazardous? Most people believe that this term should never be apply to cigarettes. By reducing the number of cigarettes smoked and lowering tar and nicotine seems to lower the risk, but these measures do not remove all the hazards. There are many deadly diseases related to smoking cigarettes. The respiratory diseases that have been linked to cigarette smoking are lung cancer, cancer of the larynx, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and coronary heart disease (Clayman 50). 3The hazards of these diseases increase with the quantity of cigarettes smoked and the length of time the habit is continued. Cigarette smoker s are warned each time they smoke a cigarette of the deadly diseases that could effect their health. By law a warning label must appear on each pack and carton of cigarettes warning buyers of the hazards (American Heart Association 1). Therefore, smokers realize cigarette smoking effects their health by meaning of lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema (Clayman 50). Cigarette smoking is an important risk factor in the development of lung cancer, it is known and is avoidable. The risk of developing lung cancer greatly increases with the years of cigarette smoking. Tobacco smoking is a carcinogen that is a cancer inducing agent. When a smoker inhales tobacco smoke into their lungs it passes though tubes call bronchi which cause damage to the cell lining (Clayman 392). During the exposure to cigarette smoking the bronchi produces extra mucus to clean away the material left behind by the smoke. Some of the signs are continuous coughing and often coughing up mucus mixed with blood and chest pain. If a smoker quits at this point, there is a good chance that the surface of the bronchi can return to normal.

Heart Disease is dramatically increased by smoking cigarette smoking. The heart disease risk factor that can be changed are tobacco smoking, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure and physical inactivity (qtd in American Heart Association s 4). The more you smoke, the higher your chances are for heart disease. The good news is that a smoker s risk of developing lung and other cancers can be reduced by quitting. The risk begins to decrease immediately after quitting. And continues to decline gradually each year, eventually, your risk is almost equal to a person who has never smoked (American Heart Association s 5). 4To protect yourself from heart disease, quit smoking and exercise regularly. Another effect on your health from long term smoking is emphysema or chronic bronchitis. Emphysema is a lung disease that destroys the elasticity of the lungs and impairs its ability to inhale and exhale properly (Clayman 383). In earlier symptoms of emphysema smokers eventually find it difficult to breathe. For instance, during or after physical activity a smoker will find themselves short of breath, or even gasping for air. Victims of emphysema often die of heart attacks because of the years of increased stress on the heart. In advanced cases, emphysema and chronic bronchitis may cause chest deformities, overwhelming disability, heart enlargement, severe respiratory failure or death (Clayman 383). Equally important, is how cigarette smoke effects the health of others. What has become known as secondhand smoke is just as dangerous. In a closed room cigarette smoke produce enough carbon monoxide to affect everyone who is in it. Also there are indications that secondhand smoke will have the same effects on the lungs of a non smoker, as in a smoker (Steinfeld 50). For that same reason, smoking has become restricted within most companies and businesses. Smoking is restricted to designated areas that are normally outside the building. Pregnant women definitely, should not smoke. When the mother smokes, so does the unborn child. A pregnant woman who smokes passes on the poisons of the cigarette tobacco in her placenta, which is then carried on to her baby. Pregnant mothers also run a high risk of having children with birth defects. Also their babies often weigh less, which causes additional problems for the baby s health. 5The surgeon general warns that smoking may complicate pregnancy and smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth and low birth weight ( qtd in American Heart Association 1). Non-smokers involuntarily inhale smoke from other people s cigarettes, which sometimes causes them eye, nose or throat irritation, in addition to coughing and sneezing. Studies have shown that nonsmokers who live in the same house as a smoker has almost twice the risk of developing lung cancer as a non smoker who lives in a smoke free-environment (qtd in Clayman 50). Here is what you can do to protect you and your family from the dangerous effects of smoke and smokers: don t smoke inyour house or let anyone else smoke in your house; don t smoke or allow anyone to smoke around your children especially infants and toddlers; in restaurants ask to sit in the nonsmoking area; make sure your family is in a smoke free environment at school, daycare, work and after school programs; if you re pregnant as your partner, and others not to smoke around you. Smoking related diseases cause the death of more than 400,000 Americans in 1994. Almost everyone know that smoking is hazardous to their health and can cause lung cancer. Smoking is responsible for 30 percent of all cancer deaths annually in the United States that is more than 155,000 each year (American Heart Association 2). But smoker s are not the only ones whose health that suffers. Secondhand smoking each year causes several thousand non-smokers lung cancer (American Heart Association 2) Secondhand smoke is estimated to cause the death of over 40,000 non-smokers a year ( American Heart Association 196). 6In closing, it has been medically proven that cigarettes have many dangerous effects on a smoker s life. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of premature death in this country. Smoking not only harms the health of the user, but also the health of non-smokers who share the same space. Not smoking and stopping smoking are the two most important things we can do for ourselves and for our loves one. As a result, quitting smoking is the only possible solution. It will not be easy, but it is worth the effort. 7

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