A cigarette is a paper-wrapped roll of delicately cut
tobacco, which had been smoked by humans for centuries and it has become the
leading cause of premature, preventable death in the world.
Before we go into how cigarettes affect the humans body, I want
to state some facts about the consequences of smoking, just so that for those
who have any doubts on whether smoking is good or bad will definitely
understand that it’s a misconception to think that smoking is good!
From 2002 onwards approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced
globally each year and are smoked by an outrageous number of people as over 1.1
billion people or greater than one seventh of the world population smoke. Since
the US has the most number of people smoking in one country alone, we’ll have a
look at the statistics in the US. In the
United States alone, 25.2 million men, 23.2 million women, and 4.1 million
teens between 12 and 17 years of age, smoke. Every day, more than three million
youths under the age of 18 begin smoking. The gruesome statistics show that nationally,
one in five of all deaths are related to tobacco use meaning it kills more than
430,000 people every year which is more than AIDS, alcohol, drugs abuse,
automobile accidents, murders, suicides, and fires combined!! Five million years of
potential life is lost every year due to premature death caused by tobacco use,
medical costs total more than $50 billion annually, and indirect cost another
$50 billion. A chemical compound that is a major component in urine called Urea
is used to add “flavor" to cigarettes, so don’t think for one second that the
cigarette companies care about you and your health, the only thing they care
about is the money they’re making and not the millions of people they are killing.
OK, so now that those people who had any doubt have woken up
we can get to the real stuff which is how smoking actually affects us and our
body. The chemical in tobacco smoke harm blood cells and can damage the
function of the heart and the structure and function of blood vessels. This damage
highly increases your risk of a disease called atherosclerosis and peripheral
arterial disease(P.A.D), which are diseases in which a fatty substance called plaque
builds up in the arteries, which is located in the heart(for more information
check out my post on the heart below). Over
time, plaque hardens and narrows your arteries and this limits the flow of oxygen-rich
blood to your head, organs, limbs and other parts of your body and this
limitation makes it extremely hard to breath and after a while it will be
difficult to continue living. People who have P.A.D are at increased risk of
heart attacks, heart disease and stroke. Almost 20% of all deaths from heart
disease in the U.S. are directly related to cigarette smoking. That's because
smoking is a major cause of atherosclerosis and peripheral arterial disease
(P.A.D). A person's risk of heart disease and heart attack greatly increases with the number of
cigarettes he or she smokes. People who smoke have two to four times’ higher chance
of having heart disease. And smokers continue to increase their risk of heart
attack the longer they smoke.
Of the 4,000 or more different chemicals present in
cigarette smoke, 60 are known to cause cancer and others to cause cellular
genetic mutations that can lead to cancer. Cigarette smoke contains nicotine tars,
nitrosamines, and polycyclic hydrocarbons, all of which are carcinogenic. It
also contains carbon monoxide which, when inhaled, interferes with
transportation and utilization of oxygen throughout the body. Nicotine is a
highly addictive chemical which is a drug that is naturally present in the
tobacco plant and is primarily responsible for a person’s addiction to tobacco
products. During smoking, nicotine enters the lungs and is absorbed quickly
into the bloodstream and travels to the brain in a matter of seconds. Nicotine
causes addiction to cigarettes and other tobacco products and it’s horrible to
know that is similar to the addiction produced by using drugs such as heroin or
cocaine.
A disgusting effect of smoking is that it stains the teeth
yellow or sometimes even brown. Since this effect is long term, most people are
not aware of it when they begin smoking. The truth is that a cigarette stain is
very hard to eliminate from the teeth and it will probably end up costing a
considerable amount of money. Yellow are disgusting since they give an
unhygienic image and make people look older.
There are 2 very critical effects smoking has that most
people forget about and don’t mention. One of those is that affect smoking has
on the smokers personal economy since the average prices for a 20 pack of
cigarettes in first world countries is about $12-15, and since regular smokers
smoke on average half a pack a day this would mean they would spend $47.25 on
average a week therefore if that smoker continues this awful habit it would
result in spending $2457 annually on average! And one could imagine what
someone could do with that money instead of spending it on a useless pack of
cigarettes.
The second effect which is just as important as the health
effect smoking has is that cigarette smoke not only affects smokers but when
you smoke, the people around you are also at risk for developing health
problems, especially children. Environmental tobacco smoke (also called passive
smoke or second-hand smoke) affects people who are frequently around smokers. Second-hand
smoke can cause chronic respiratory conditions, cancer, and heart disease. It
is estimated that nearly 70,000 non-smokers die from heart disease each year as
a result of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. Investigators at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts
General Hospital(MGH) — which finds that children who live in households where
they are exposed to tobacco smoke miss more days of school than do children
living in smoke-free homes, a new nationwide study confirms. The
report states that “children have higher rates of respiratory illnesses that
can be caused by second-hand smoke.” This is a shocking effect because a smokers’ life
choice should only affect him/her and it should in no circumstance have any
affects on someone who is wiser and decided to not smoke.
The World Health Organization
(WHO) has named tobacco one of the greatest public health threats of the
twenty-first century. As of 1999, more than one billion people worldwide smoke,
and 3.5 million people are expected to die from causes directly related to
tobacco use. This death rate is expected to rise to 10 million by the year
2030. On average each cigarette that is smoked is estimated to shorten
life by 11 minutes. So next time you’re lighting up think of what you’re doing
to your body, your life and the people around you and your future and also
remember with every cigarette you are accepting the fact that you want to live
a shorter life.
