Smoking and its effects

Christopher Columbus landed on an island called Guanahani by its inhabitants and which he named San Salvador. The inhabitants told Columbus of a larger island and Columbus set sail. When he arrived at the island he saw the inhabitants walking around "with a little lighted brand made from a kind of plant whose aroma it was their custom to inhale."

That same day, Rodriguo de Jerez (one of Columbus’ fellow explorers) took his first hesitant puff of the New World's early version of the cigar, its ring size estimated to be as big as a man's arm, and became the first European smoker in history. When Columbus and his crew returned home with some tobacco leaves, Rodrigo, who'd taken to smoking a cigar every day, made the mistake of lighting up the unusual plant in public. The Spanish Inquisition - the world’s first victim of the anti-smokers, promptly threw him into prison for three years.

In 1512 Portugal was the first country outside of the Americas to cultivate tobacco and by 1558 snuff was on sale in Lisbon. In approximately 1560 tobacco was introduced in Rome and in 1570 the tobacco plant was successfully grown in Germany and Switzerland and, as a medicinal herb, in Austria and Hungary. In approximately 1620 Japan banned smoking for the first time. Today, it has one of the highest numbers of adult smokers in the world, and one of the lowest incidents of lung cancer, similar to Greece and in 1622 onwards writers praised tobacco for as a universal remedy to mankind’s ills.

In 1648 anti-smoking increased throughout Europe and most writers then were against it and smoking was lauded as a preventive of the bubonic plague, or Black Death, which made its last and most celebrated appearance in London in 1665-1666, claiming an estimated 70,000 lives from a population of just under half a million.

In 1699 France’s Louis XIV and his physician, Fagon, opposed smoking. Snuff taking spread, probably because it was comparatively discreet and no one would know unless they hear you sneeze. The Portuguese introduced smoking into India, Eastern Asia and Japan.

In 1830 the first Cuban Segar (that is what it was called then) arrived in London at a shop called Robert Lewis in St James’ Street.

The world’s first factory to produce cigarettes by mass-production methods was established in Havana, Cuba, by Don Luis Susini, who abandoned hand rolling for steam-driven machines in 1853.

Later on in 1908 selling cigarettes to under 16 year old became illegal. By the mid-1990s after the gradual introduction of anti-smoking measures such as the mushrooming of ‘no smoking’ signs in cinemas, theatres, shops and other public meeting places – mainly to avoid paying the increased insurance premiums levied against smokers, cigarettes and pipes were in decline.

And lastly by early 1998, the number of British adult smokers had dropped to just 15 million, only slightly less than a third of the population and the biggest and mostly overlooked ‘minority’ in the UK.

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Diseases caused by Smoking

CANCER 

In the last 50 years surveys have been carried out in Britain and they show one common thing. The common thing is that smoking is linked with lung cancer. Laboratory tests show that tobacco smoke contains tiny droplets of tar. When a smoker inhales with a filtered cigarette the tar stains the filter (but not all the tar is filtered out). The tar contains substances, which cause cancer these are called carcinogens. Carcinogenic chemicals make cells of various tissues reproduce uncontrollably. The affected tissue grows but doesn’t function properly.

        Here are some pictures of normal lungs and pictures of lung with lung cancer: 

     A healthy lung                                    A lung with lung cancer

                    Another lung with lung cancer

Emphysema

Your lungs are filled with delicate air sacs, tiny, soft structures surrounded by very small blood vessels. In these air sacs, carbon dioxide gases from the body are exchanged for fresh air from the outside. Emphysema damages these delicate air sacs. They become large and hard, and lose their ability to exchange air. With damaged air sacs, you cannot get enough air to breathe, and always feel that you cannot catch your breath. Emphysema is a very serious disease. It takes years to develop, but its damage cannot be undone. The disease can be caused by any substance in the lungs, which causes irritation and swelling. Cigarette smoke is the most common cause of this disease as cigarette smoke contains acidic and irritant substances. 

A lung with emphysema

Bronchitis

Substances in cigarettes irritate the walls of the throat and the bronchial tubes. Mucus is produced which clogs up the respiratory passages. This makes breathing difficult and leads to a “smokers cough”. Very often, the bronchial tubes become infected and the disease lasts a long time instead of clearing up in a few days (this is called chronic bronchitis.) Without treatment, bronchitis will seriously weaken your lungs. The only chance your lungs have to fully recover is for you to stop putting cigarette smoke into them. Is smoking worth losing your breath?

Benefits of quitting Smoking

When smokers quit, within twenty minutes of smoking that last cigarette the body begins a series of changes.

At 20 minutes after quitting:

• Blood pressure decreases
• Pulse rate drops
• Body temperature of hands and feet increases

At 8 hours:

• Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal
• Oxygen level in blood increases to normal

At 24 hours:

• Chance of a heart attack decreases

At 48 hours:

• Nerve endings start regrowing
• Ability to smell and taste is enhanced

The first year after quitting:

At 2 weeks to 3 months:

• Circulation improves
• Walking becomes easier
• Lung function increases

1 to 9 months:

• Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, shortness of breath decreases

1 year:

• Excess risk of coronary heart disease is decreased to half that of a smoker

Long-term Benefits of Quitting

At 5 years:

• From 5 to 15 years after quitting, stroke risk is reduced to that of people who have never smoked.

At 10 years:

• Risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one-half that of continuing smokers
• Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreases
• Risk of ulcer decreases

At 15 years:

• Risk of coronary heart disease is now similar to that of people who have never smoked
• Risk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smoked

The financial effects of

Smoking

The effects of smoking are no just based on health risks but there are also other problems involved with smoking. One of these problems is the money involved with smoking. On average a packet of cigarettes costs about £4.33 and an average smoker smokes about a packet of cigarettes a day. If you want to find out how much an average smoker pays for cigarettes per annum you do this:

£4.33 (a packet of cigarettes) × 7 (days per week) = £ 30.31 (amount paid for cigarettes a week)

£ 30.31 (amount paid for cigarettes a week) × 52 (weeks per year) = £1576.12 (amount paid for cigarettes a year)

So an average smoker pays approximately £1576.12 a year, so if you take up smoking you are more than likely to spend more than £1500 a year in cigarettes.

        In the U.K the price of a pack of 20 premium brand cigarettes currently costs £4.33, of which £3.45  (80%) is tax. Thus out of the £1576.12 spent a year by a smoker 80% is taken by the Government, which is £1260.90.

        This is the main reason why the Government doesn’t ban smoking, because they are making £1260.90 per smoker per year in the U.K.

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Bibliography

The main resources I used in the making of this project were websites on the Internet. I found those websites using the search engine . The main sites I found using Google were:

I also used some books to help me with the project. These were:

• Nelson Science Biology by Michael Roberts and Neil Ingram
• Letts GCSE SCIENCE study guide by Graham Hill
• CGP KS3 Science Study Guide by Richard Parsons