Skim the text to check your ideas. SMOKING AND THE EFFECTS OF CIGARETTES
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SMOKING AND THE EFFECTS OF CIGARETTES
by Dan Buglio
The effects of smoking are countless. From the impact to your health, the health of those around you and even the damage it can do to your home, it blows my mind that smoking is still so popular. While the popularity is on a decline, it’s still estimated that 35% of men and 22% of women worldwide still smoke.
Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemicals including more than 40 cancer causing agents and 200 known poisons. Nicotine is comparable to heroine in terms of addiction. The nicotine released in gas form from smoke is easily absorbed through the lungs and into the blood stream. These chemicals alter the chemistry in the brain within seconds of inhalation. This causes a temporary euphoric sensation - which is why people crave nicotine so much.
Carbon monoxide impairs the bloods ability to carry oxygen to the body including vital organs like the brain and heart. Smokers are in a constant state of oxygen deprivation because of the high amounts of carbon monoxide in their blood (4 to 15 times more than nonsmokers). The average cigarette has more than 600 times the concentration that is considered safe in industrial plants, where carbon monoxide poisoning is a constant danger.
Nicotine has historically been one of the toughest addictions to break, but here are six reasons why quitting is worth the battle.
-People who smoke spend 27% more time in hospitals and nearly 2 times the amount of time in intensive care units compared to non-smokers.
- A smoker is at twice the risk of dying before age sixty-five as a non-smoker.
- The risk of lung cancer increases 50% to 100% with every cigarette that a person smokes per day.
- Smoking filter tipped cigarettes cuts the risk of lung cancer by up to 20%, but still does not eliminate the danger involved.
- Each cigarette costs the smoker 5 to 25 minutes of life.
- The risk of Heart Disease increases 50% with every pack of cigarettes a person smokes per day.
Non-smokers exposed to second hand smoke are at greater risk for many of the health problems associated with direct smoking. Over the past two decades, research has shown that non-smokers suffer many of the diseases of active smoking when they breathe secondhand smoke. Passive smoking (also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), involuntary smoking or second hand smoke) occurs when the exhaled and ambient smoke from one person's cigarette is inhaled by other people. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to experience increased frequency of: asthma, colds, bronchitis, pneumonia and other lung diseases. Sinus infection and middle ear infections. When a pregnant woman is exposed to secondhand smoke, the nicotine she ingests is passed on to her unborn baby. Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and contributes to the development of heart disease.
Non smoking women who live with a smoker have a 91% greater risk of heart disease. They also have twice the risk of dying from lung cancer. Non-smoking spouses who are exposed to secondhand smoke have about 20% higher death rates for both lung cancer and heart disease.
Studies show a correlation between second hand smoke and certain forms of cancer in pets. In a study done by Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts researchers found a direct link between a cat’s chances of developing lymphoma and the number of smokers living in the home. A cat exposed to secondhand smoke had double the risk of getting lymphoma. If the cat had lived with a smoker for five years or more, the risk would have tripled. If there were two smokers in the house the risk increased four times. Birds with their tiny lungs are particularly susceptible to lung illness, cancers and even death from living in a smoky home.
Homes owned by smokers are historically difficult to sell. These smoked in homes often take 2-3 times longer to sell, or require tens of thousands in new carpets, paint and clean up before selling. A home smoked in for many years will often sell for 5-15% less than a home that hasn't been smoked in.
If you or a family member insists on smoking indoors, set up a closed room as a “smoking room”. Do not smoke or allow family members to smoke if children are present (particularly infants and toddlers, who are especially susceptible to the effects of tobacco smoke). Sometimes smoking family members may be belligerent of such a rule—but smoking around children is a life or death situation. You would not let your child play with a gun because of the potential danger of it firing—why you would feel any differently about secondhand smoke, which is statistically much more dangerous?
Do not allow babysitters or other people who work in your home to smoke indoors. For families with heavy smokers or multiple smokers, you should consider a comprehensive approach to smoke removal. A quality smoke eater in the dedicated smoking room coupled with effective whole house filtration and air purification to help clean the air of the multiple pollutants.
Smoking is still a personal choice. If you want to smoke, knowing all of the health hazards (risks), go for it. But please consider the harmful effects of smoking on others. Perhaps even your loved ones. You may try to delude yourself into thinking that all the anti-smoking in the media along with complaints from family members are simply discrimination, but the facts are indisputable. Smoking and even second hand smoke is not just uncomfortable but downright dangerous.
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