The health effects of tobacco smoking are related to direct tobacco smoking, as well as passive smoking, inhalation of environmental or secondhand tobacco smoke.
The United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide".[1]
An indirect public health problem posed by cigarettes is that of accidental fires, usually linked with consumption of alcohol. Numerous cigarette designs have been proposed, some by tobacco companies themselves, which would extinguish a cigarette left unattended for more than a minute or two, thereby reducing the risk of fire. However the tobacco companies have historically resisted this idea, on the grounds that the nuisance involved in having to relight a cigarette left untouched for too long would reduce their sales. In fact, untreated tobacco formed into a cigarette will extinguish itself relatively quickly if left alone, and as a result cigarette tobacco is treated chemically to allow it to smolder indefinitely.
The main health risks in tobacco pertain to diseases of the cardiovascular system, in particular smoking being a major risk factor for a myocardial infarction (heart attack), diseases of the respiratory tract such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer and cancers of the larynx and tongue. Prior to World War I, lung cancer was considered to be a rare disease, which most physicians would never see during their career. With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette smoking, however, came a virtual epidemic of lung cancer.
A person's increased risk of contracting disease is directly proportional to the length of time that a person continues to smoke as well as the amount smoked. However, if someone stops smoking, then these chances steadily although gradually decrease as the damage to their body is repaired.
Diseases linked to smoking tobacco cigarettes include:
lung cancer and other cancers
stroke
peripheral vascular disease
birth defects of pregnant smokers' offspring
Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans)
impotence chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis in particular
More likely to develop cataracts that may cause blindness
More likely to develop cataracts that may cause blindness
The incidence of lung cancer is highly correlated with smoking.Cigar and pipe smokers tend to inhale less smoke than cigarette smokers, so their risk of lung cancer is lower but is still several times higher than the risk for nonsmokers. Pipe and cigar smokers are also at risk for cancers of the oral cavity, larynx (voice box), or esophagus, a risk which was widely hypothesized before any link between smoking and cancer was scientifically proved as seen in the news coverage of the tobacco-related cancers of two American presidents; Ulysses S. Grant died in 1885 at age sixty-three after a long and painful public battle with throat cancer which was widely assumed at the time to be the result of his lifelong cigar habit, and his successor Grover Cleveland was diagnosed in 1893 with cancer of the left jaw, which was frequently remarked upon by the press and public as the side where he usually had a cigar clamped. Similarly, cancer of the mouth and jaw is also a risk for chewing tobacco. The benefits of smoking cessation are immediate: blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature return to normal range; heart attack risk decreases; ability to smell and taste is enhanced; circulation improves.
It is generally assumed that the major motivational factor behind smoking is the nicotine it contains. However, the practice of ingesting the smoke from a smoldering leaf generates an enormous number of active chemical compounds, loosely lumped together as 'tar', many of which are biologically reactive and potential health dangers. (Chewing tobacco is also carcinogenic, likely because similar compounds are generated in the practice of curing it; the Nordic snus, which is steam cured and therefore does not generate these compounds, is much less carcinogenic.) There are around 3000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Long term exposure to other compounds in the smoke, such as carbon monoxide, cyanide, and other compounds that damage lung and arterial tissue, are believed to be responsible for cardiovascular damage and for loss of elasticity in the alveoli, leading to emphysema and COPD.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
CANCER, Cartology disease, then death
April 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
It could harm the brain(by killing brain cells), Smoking causes lung cancer ( building up smoke ,and toxic.), and ur respiratory system ( Huffing)
April 29th, 2009 at 8:51 am
The health effects of tobacco smoking are related to direct tobacco smoking, as well as passive smoking, inhalation of environmental or secondhand tobacco smoke.
The United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco use as "the single most important preventable risk to human health in developed countries and an important cause of premature death worldwide".[1]
An indirect public health problem posed by cigarettes is that of accidental fires, usually linked with consumption of alcohol. Numerous cigarette designs have been proposed, some by tobacco companies themselves, which would extinguish a cigarette left unattended for more than a minute or two, thereby reducing the risk of fire. However the tobacco companies have historically resisted this idea, on the grounds that the nuisance involved in having to relight a cigarette left untouched for too long would reduce their sales. In fact, untreated tobacco formed into a cigarette will extinguish itself relatively quickly if left alone, and as a result cigarette tobacco is treated chemically to allow it to smolder indefinitely.
The main health risks in tobacco pertain to diseases of the cardiovascular system, in particular smoking being a major risk factor for a myocardial infarction (heart attack), diseases of the respiratory tract such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer and cancers of the larynx and tongue. Prior to World War I, lung cancer was considered to be a rare disease, which most physicians would never see during their career. With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette smoking, however, came a virtual epidemic of lung cancer.
A person's increased risk of contracting disease is directly proportional to the length of time that a person continues to smoke as well as the amount smoked. However, if someone stops smoking, then these chances steadily although gradually decrease as the damage to their body is repaired.
Diseases linked to smoking tobacco cigarettes include:
lung cancer and other cancers
stroke
peripheral vascular disease
birth defects of pregnant smokers' offspring
Buerger's disease (thromboangiitis obliterans)
impotence chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis in particular
More likely to develop cataracts that may cause blindness
More likely to develop cataracts that may cause blindness
The incidence of lung cancer is highly correlated with smoking.Cigar and pipe smokers tend to inhale less smoke than cigarette smokers, so their risk of lung cancer is lower but is still several times higher than the risk for nonsmokers. Pipe and cigar smokers are also at risk for cancers of the oral cavity, larynx (voice box), or esophagus, a risk which was widely hypothesized before any link between smoking and cancer was scientifically proved as seen in the news coverage of the tobacco-related cancers of two American presidents; Ulysses S. Grant died in 1885 at age sixty-three after a long and painful public battle with throat cancer which was widely assumed at the time to be the result of his lifelong cigar habit, and his successor Grover Cleveland was diagnosed in 1893 with cancer of the left jaw, which was frequently remarked upon by the press and public as the side where he usually had a cigar clamped. Similarly, cancer of the mouth and jaw is also a risk for chewing tobacco. The benefits of smoking cessation are immediate: blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature return to normal range; heart attack risk decreases; ability to smell and taste is enhanced; circulation improves.
It is generally assumed that the major motivational factor behind smoking is the nicotine it contains. However, the practice of ingesting the smoke from a smoldering leaf generates an enormous number of active chemical compounds, loosely lumped together as 'tar', many of which are biologically reactive and potential health dangers. (Chewing tobacco is also carcinogenic, likely because similar compounds are generated in the practice of curing it; the Nordic snus, which is steam cured and therefore does not generate these compounds, is much less carcinogenic.) There are around 3000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke. Long term exposure to other compounds in the smoke, such as carbon monoxide, cyanide, and other compounds that damage lung and arterial tissue, are believed to be responsible for cardiovascular damage and for loss of elasticity in the alveoli, leading to emphysema and COPD.