Harmful Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes

The act of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning tobacco in cigars, cigarettes or pipes is called cigarette smoking. Originally it was started by Native Americans and was practiced in rituals and for medicinal purposes. But slowly it spread to other parts of the World and by the end of 19th century the use was widespread all over the earth. There are various methods of smoking. They are cigarette, cigar, smoking, pipe, hookah or shisha. Today the habit is so rampant that many Governments have come down heavily on tobacco manufacturers and sellers in the form of heavy taxation for tobacco and tobacco products. This is because there are numerous harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes. But, why does one smoke? Some of the possible answers are discussed below.

Reasons for Smoking
Many studies among smokers have established the fact that depression is one of the main reasons for people indulging in this act. The habit is less prevalent among people not having depression problems. One of the studies also indicates that people acquire this habit at the young age and become addicted. Actually, children derive this habit from elders especially from their parents, by seeing them smoke in their house or when used by the parents themselves for procuring the cigarettes. Smoking in movies is the main reason for adolescents acquiring this habit.

The smokers derive an imaginary pleasure of relaxation in smoking. Quitting this habit depends on the mental strength of the person. Among the depressed smokers the percentage of quitters is less. Nicotine, one of the components is mainly responsible for the addiction to this habit. It has been established that people get addicted to nicotine within five months of smoking. According to studies nicotine is more addictive than caffeine or ethanol.

Studies on Smoking
In 1964, a committee appointed by the U.S. Public Health Service concluded in its report that smoking is a serious health hazard. The Surgeon General's Advisory Committee drew the attention of the world to the dangers of smoking. It concluded, according to the study conducted over a decade, that the chances of a smoker getting lung cancer are significantly more than a non-smoker.

The factors such as the number of years the person has smoked and at what age he started smoking are also very important for the smoker contracting the disease. The effects of smoking have been taken so seriously by the governments around the world, that they have made it compulsory to have statutory warnings like "smoking is injurious to health" or "smoking kills" on all packs so that the new users get warned. This Buzzle article on harmful effects of smoking will cover all the possible ailments that may plague chronic smoker.

Effects of Smoking
Tobacco smoke contains a substance called nicotine, a poisonous alkoid. It also has substances such as carbon monoxide, acrolien, ammonia, prussic acid, aldehydes and tar. Tobacco contains about 4000 chemicals which when heated produce a lot of substances that cause irreparable damages to the health.

A cigarette burns at 700° C at the tip and at 60° C at the butts. This heat breaks down the tobacco stuffed inside to produce various toxins. When a cigarette burns the residues are concentrated towards the butt. To avoid excess inhaling of tobacco products, the concept of filters were introduced by the manufacturers, and an impression that filter cigarettes are harmless was created. But it has been proved that filters cannot altogether stop the substances getting inside. However the intake will be reduced by the quality of filter.

Diseases Caused By Smoking Cigarettes
The harmful effects of smoking are numerous. Smoking affects lung and causes lung cancer. Its harmful effects do not end there. Cancer and some other illness such as heart diseases, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases are caused by the act. The risks associated with the use of oral contraceptives and, occupational hazards such as the use of asbestos sheets, are increased by the harmful effects of smoking.

Pipe and cigar users do not normally inhale much, which may not cause lung cancer but they run the risk of developing mouth cancer. In the case of pregnant women, smoking is doubly dangerous as it affects the child in the womb. The nicotine in tobacco reduces the blood flow and thereby the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the unborn baby gets reduced causing, sometimes, the death of the baby itself.

Studies have shown, one in two chain smokers die and half of these chain smokers never cross their middle age. Nicotine and carbon monoxide, together cause increase in heart rate, blood pressure and put strain on the blood vessels and heart. Smoking also causes a number of cardiovascular diseases that includes heart attacks and strokes.

Cigarettes contain tar like substances that coat the lungs like soot in chimneys. In just 20 days, a smoker breathes in about one full cup (215 g) of tar. Thus, reducing the air carrying capacity of the lungs. The carbon monoxide decreases the oxygen levels reaching the brain, muscles and body tissues. Thus, causing the heart to pump harder and faster.

Smokers tend to suffer from many lung ailments that include emphysema (slow rotting of the lung tissue), bronchitis, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and finally heart failure. Smokers are 10 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. Studies also show that 1 in every 5 deaths due to heart disease is due to smoking. This is because smoking tends to cause blockage of blood vessels by fat deposits that affects the functioning of the heart.

It is not just lung cancer, but smoking cigarettes can also cause cancers such as acute myeloid cancer, cervix cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, cancer of the mouth, cancer of the throat, cancer of the uterus and many other deadly cancers.

Passive Smoking
The dangers of smoking are not confined to the smoker himself. The non-smoker person by his side is also affected by the act of smoking. This is called passive smoking, inhaling the cigarette smoke of others. The passive smoking is also known as environmental or secondhand smoking.

According to the study released, the signs for cardiovascular diseases are higher in people subjected to, secondhand smoking. It is confirmed in many studies that exposure to secondhand smoke causes lung cancer, heart diseases, heart attacks and breast cancer in the case of young women The risks, a passive smoker is exposed, have led to the ban of smoking in public and work places, in many countries.

Whether it is active smoking or passive smoking, harmful effects of smoking are numerous. The bottom line is, smoking is harmful to health and 'SMOKING KILLS". It is time to say no to tobacco and no to smoking, if you love your life and your family.