What are the effects of smoking on the human body?

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What are the effects of smoking on the human body?

Smoking is all around us. In these modern times all you have to do to

increase your risks of getting cancer is go to supermarket and buy cancer in

a box or cigarettes.

(Encarta, 2003)

Smoking.

Cigarettes are the most commonly bought legal drug in the world.

Everywhere you look you can find cigarette adverts, commercials, sponsoring

and even on the roads there will be cigarette butts everywhere. Even in

third world countries where clean running water is a prayer answered you can

buy Marlboro. When you go to the cinema during the adverts you will see a clip of a handsome cowboy living off the land and catching mustangs and at the end of the day when everything is finished what does he like to do? Have a Marlboro Red and relax. But now because of smoking the Marlboro guy is dead. He died from lung cancer due to smoking. But the big managers of the Marlboro Company aren’t gong to tell you that though; its bad for business.

In this day and age even with all the warnings people still smoke. Out of 50

people asked 98 per cent of them said that the do smoke or have smoked

before in their lives. Only 2 per cent of the respondents had said

that they had never tried to or had to smoke a cigarette, that was

just one person out of fifty (Table 1). But out of the people who did smoke,

90 per cent of them knew the effects of smoking but still smoked regardless

of the health hazards (Table 1).

Cancer.

Cancer must be one of the worst diseases in the world because there is

little anything that can be done about it and there is a lot of pain and suffering

involved with or with out treatment. Even with all the warnings people still

smoke.

To understand cancer and what it does to the lungs you need to understand

what the lungs are and what they do. The lungs are two spongy pieces of tissue. They are used to take in oxygen from the air breathed in and pass this oxygen to where it

is needed in your body. But the lungs also get rid of harmful substances

such as carbon dioxide, which is a chemical made by the body. If you didn’t

get rid of the carbon dioxide in the body it would kill you. Inside the

lungs there are many branches, like the branches of a tree. Air comes in

through your mouth and nose and then travels down a tube called the trachea.

The trachea divides into smaller branches called bronchi. The bronchi keep

dividing into smaller branches like on a tree. As the branches get smaller

and smaller they are called bronchioles. At the end of the branches there

are sacs called alveoli. The oxygen in the air then diffuses in to the capillaries on the outside of the alveoli and then the oxygen is through the blood

stream and is taken to where it is needed in the body. So when you inhale

the smoke from a cigarette all the nicotine with in the smoke is

absorbed into your body’s blood stream. So you can see how important your

lungs are for the survival of the body.

(Encarta, 2003)

Lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the world for

both men and for women. In the United States of America  (U.S.A) it is

estimated that 158,900 people will die from lung cancer in the year 2002.

Compared to 126,800 people who are expected to die from colon, breast cancer

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and prostate cancer combined in the year 1999(American Cancer Society, 1999).

Every smoker is at risk for getting lung cancer. It is estimated that 87 per cent

of all lung cancers are directly from smoking (www.oncolink.com). The longer you smoke the higher the risk becomes of getting cancer. But it doesn’t matter

if you quit after ten days or ten years of smoking as soon as you stop the

risk of getting cancer lowers and lowers the longer you go with out a

cigarette. But for people who do smoke and don’t intend on quitting they can

still lower the ...

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