The Effects of Smoking

Smoking Kills

Every year, 400,000 Americans die from smoking related illness. This year, smoking will kill more than 276,000 men and 142,000 women. Every drag inhaled from a cigarette contains 4,000 chemicals. Out of those 4,000 chemicals, 109 of them are proven to cause cancer. Smoking does not only kill yourself, but in fact it kills the loved ones around you as well. Every year, 52,000 non-smokers die from inhaling second-hand smoke. Now for us to actually understand the affect of smoking does to our body, we must look at it in these harmful ways; who smokes and when they started, what is in an actual cigarette, and the long term effects.

Who Smokes? When did they start smoking?

7.5 million surveyed in the United States. They are regular tobacco users and 65% are regular cigarette smokers. Approximately 80% of adult smokers started before the age of 18. But every day, nearly 3,000 become smokers. This is estimated that 5 million of our young adults will die prematurely because they made the decision to smoke cigarettes.

What is an actual cigarette?

There are 4,000 identified chemicals found in cigarette smoke. 109 of those chemicals are proven cause cancer, and 10 of them are identified to cause birth defects. The three most health-damaging chemicals in tobacco smoke are nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide. One pure ounce of nicotine can paralyze and slow the nervous system of an adult man so quickly, he could die within three minutes.

What is an actual cigarette cont

When tar cools inside your lungs, it forms a black sticky mass. Someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day for one year inhales eight ounces of tar. That is the same weight as a stick of butter. Carbon monoxide is a odorless, deadly gas released from exhausts of vehicles. When inhaled, it removes the oxygen from the body, leaving smokers with short of breath when just walking up a flight of stairs. Next time you think of sticking a cancer stick in your mouth, remember its like sticking your lips against the exhaust pipe of a car and taking a deep breath.

The Long-Term Effects and Diseases of Smoking

Smoking increases your risk of cancer. Cancer is the 2nd leading death in the Unites States, and now kills nearly half a million people every year. 90% of all cancer death are caused by lung cancer that is associated with smoking cigarettes. In fact, in 1986 lung cancer actually caught up with breast caber in the leading cancer deaths in women. Other cancers associated with smoking consists of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, kidney, larynx, mouth, esophagus, and uterine cervix.

Other Frightful Long term Diseases Associating with Smoking

Heart disease is todays number one killer in America. 865,000 people died from heart disease last year, 3040% were attributable to smoking. Another lung disease such as COPD, which is chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, is caused by smoking. Mucus from the smoke builds up around the lungs and invites bacteria to grow. This then will not let the smoker fight out any viral infections and as a result will develop the flu, pneumonia, coughs, tuberculosis, and other breathing problems.

Secondhand Smoke and Why It Is Harmful to Others.

Secondhand smoke kills 53,000 Americans each year. In each year, secondhand smoke causes 3,000 lung cancers in non-smokers If you think about all the chemicals you inhale in your body, your children inhale those same 4,000 chemicals as well. SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), occurs twice as more frequently among babies whose mother smokes. There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke.

Its Your Choice

Now that we have explores the health hazards of smoking and what it does to our bodies, do you want to smoke cigarettes or should we call them cancerettes? Remember to ask yourself of smoking is worth your life or a family members life? Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature deaths, Marlboros anyone?