Tobacco manufacturers have produced a cigarette that is low in tar and nicotine to reduce the chance of cancer. Filters help to reduce the amount of chemicals inhaled by smokers but they do not stop them completely. Cigarettes have some very harmful ingredients in them. One disease related to smoking is heart disease. Some respiratory related diseases that have been linked with smoking are lung cancer, cancer of the larynx, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. The hazards of these diseases increases with the quantity of cigarettes smoked and the length of time the habit continues. Smokers are warned by a mandatory label on all cigarette boxes every time they smoke. Smokers are aware that smoking effects their health by means of lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema. All of these are avoidable (Surgeon General's Warnings).
When a smoker inhales tobacco smoke into his/her lungs it passes through tubes called bronchi which causes damage to the cell lining. During the exposure to cigarette smoking the bronchi produces extra mucus to clean away the material left behind the smoke. Some of the sings are continuous coughing, often coughing up mucus mixed with blood, and chest pains. If a smoker quits at this point, there is a good chance that the bronchi can return to normal. Heart disease is dramatically increased by smoking cigarettes. The good news is that a smoker’s risk of developing lung and other cancers can be reduced by quitting. The risk reduces immediately when a smoker starts smoking less or quits smoking altogether. Emphysema is a lung disease that destroys the elasticity of the lungs and impairs its ability to inhale and exhale properly. In earlier symptoms of emphysema smokers eventually find it difficult to breathe. For instance, during or after physical activity a smoker will find themselves short of breath, or even gasping for air. Victims of emphysema often die of heart attacks because of the years of increased stress on the heart. In advanced cases, emphysema and chronic bronchitis may cause chest deformities, overwhelming disability, heart enlargement, severe respiratory failure or death (FTC Reprot).
Equally important, is how cigarette smoke effects the health of others. Secondhand smoke is just as dangerous as smoking. In a closed room cigarette smoke can produce enough carbon monoxide to affect everyone who is in it so smoking has become restricted within most companies and businesses. Smoking is usually restricted to designated areas that are normally outside the building. Pregnant women definitely, should not smoke. When the mother smokes, so does the unborn baby. A pregnant woman who smokes passes the poisons of the cigarette tobacco on to her baby. Pregnant mothers also run a high risk of having children with birth defects. Their babies often weigh less, which causes additional problems for the baby’s health. The surgeon general warns that smoking "may complicate pregnancy" and "smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth and low birth weight" Non-smokers involuntarily inhale smoke from other people’s cigarettes, which sometimes causes them eye, nose or throat irritation, in addition to coughing and sneezing. Nonsmokers who live in the same house as a smoker have almost twice the risk of developing lung cancer as non smokers who live in a smoke free-environment. Here is what you can do to protect you and your family from the dangerous effects of smoke and smokers: don’t smoke in your house or let anyone else smoke in your house; don’t smoke or allow anyone to smoke around your children especially infants and toddlers; and in restaurants ask to sit in the nonsmoking area (Surgeon General's Warnings).
In closing, it has been medically proven that cigarettes have many dangerous effects on a smoker’s life. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of premature death in this country. Smoking not only harms the health of the user, but also the health of non-smokers who share the same space. Not smoking and stopping smokers from smoking are the two most important things we can do for ourselves and our loves ones in order to live longer lives. In doing this paper I have learned more about the dangerous chemicals I have always known were in cigarettes. I have learned that cigarettes cause more than just lung cancer. Also, I have learned that filters in cigarettes are not as good as I thought.
Work Cited
Federal Trade Commission Report: Tar, Nicotine, and Carbon Monoxide of the Smoke of 1206 Varieties of Domestic Cigarettes for the Year 1994 Released July 15, 1997, http://www.erowid.org/general/new_97.shtml
Lauren A. Colby, In Search of Human Mind Chapter 11: Is Nicotine Addictive?
(c) 1996
"Smoking" Encarta. 1997ed. CD-ROM Redmond: Microsoft, 1993
Surgeon General's Warnings, Copyright © 2002 Tzingaro.com (Oct 24th 2002) http://www.letitpass.com/16p_surgeongw_1.html
