Coronary heart disease is another killer illness that smokers have an increased risk of suffering. Smoking causes a raise in blood cholesterol and high blood pressure that are the most firmly established non-hereditary risk factors that lead to coronary heart disease. Smokers have two to three times the risk of non-smokers and this includes light smokers as a US study showed when it found women who smoke 1-4 cigarettes a day had a 2.5 fold increased risk of coronary heart disease.
The role tobacco plays in coronary heart disease is both immediate and long term. Within one minute of starting to smoke, the heart rate begins to rise. In addition nicotine raises the blood pressure. The carbon monoxide in tobacco reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. This means the heart has to beat harder to pump the same volume of blood and supply the right amount of oxygen around the body.
Smoking also causes arterial disease as cigarette smokers have raised levels of fibrinogen and platelets (which are involved in the formation in blood clots), leaving the blood stickier. The carbon monoxide also attaches to haemoglobin more easily then oxygen reducing the amount of oxygen available to body tissues. These factors make smokers more at risk of developing a form of arterial disease. A thrombosis (clot) is more likely to form, which may lead to a fatal heart attack or a stroke.
Illness is not the only effect that smoking has on people. It also has a negative effect on social aspects for example it leaves them and their belongings smelling of smoke. It also causes wrinkles to appear faster then if they did not smoke as it dries out the skin. The actual cost of smoking is approximately £790 a year if you smoke ten cigarettes a day!
Smokers also effect the people around them in the form of passive smoking. Passive smokers suffer from immediate effects such as eye irritation, headache, coughing, sore throat, dizziness and nausea. Just thirty minutes of exposure to smoke is enough to reduce coronary blood flow (Otsuka 2001). So smokers are not only harming themselves, but also those around them.
However there is another side to smoking. These are the reasons why people start smoking. It is largely beliefs that the cigarette helps them to relax, relieve stress, and get through difficult times by taking their mind off problems (Richard Klein 2002). Some smokers (particularly females) use smoking as an aid to dieting as it replaces their craving for food. Peer pressure seems to be the main reason people start smoking. Teenagers in particular are influenced by their friends.
Journalist Richard Klein has a very controversial opinion, suggesting that teenagers want to understand the benefits of smoking in order to appreciate why they should stop. He also suggested that teenagers should be introduced to smoking first hand on non-smoking day, to make a fully informed decision whether or not to continue smoking after their first taste! This was intended to make teenagers feel more grown up in their decisions, as smoking is seen as a form of rebellion. By taking away the pressure on them not to smoke, it would discourage them.
Smokers do have a small positive effect on the country. 80% of the cost of a packet of cigarettes is tax. According to the government, most of this is spent on the NHS, for example in March 2000 when cigarettes rose in price by 25 pence, an extra £300 million a year was spent on the NHS. However, this raise in tax threatens the jobs of some of the workers in the tobacco industry. Without this contribution other taxes would have to go up to replace this revenue, and the jobs the tobacco industry supplies would no longer exist. However, this doesn’t balance all the negatives of smoking.
In conclusion, the costs of smoking are very serious. Not only does smoking have serious effects on a person’s health; it also costs them a lot of money and can create a negative image of the type of person they are. It seems the main reason people start smoking is some of their influential friends do it and they want to be part of the crowd. The other factors, such as relaxation, seem to be more to do with relieving withdrawal symptoms more then actual relief the cigarette causes.
References:
Godfrey, C. et al. ‘The Smoking Epidemic – a Prescription for Change.’ – Health Education Authority 1993
‘Cigarettes: What the warning label doesn’t tell you’ American Council on Science and Health 1997
CRC Cancerstats: Mortality – UK. Cancer Research Campaign, June 2001
Boyle, P et al. ‘Cigarette smoking and pancreas cancer: A case control study of the search programme of the IARC’ 1996
Otsuka, R. ‘Acute effects of passive smoking on the coronary circulation in healthy young adults.’ 2001
Other Resources:
www.ash.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
