To Smoke or Not to Smoke?

If you think it cool, think again

Here are some sad, sad, sad facts about smoking.

• Your clothes and hair will have a terrible smell.
• Your teeth will have bad breath.
• Your hair and skin will become dry. You’ll get premature wrinkles
• Smokers store more fat around the waist.
• A smoker is 22 times more likely to die of lung cancer than a non-smoker.

In fact, 30% of all cancer deaths are caused by smoking.

• Smoking causes heart attacks. By the way, heart disease is now the number-one killer in Russia.

Y

ou’d have to be living on Mars not to know that smoking is dangerous. Yet statistics show that young people today smoke more, not less. Why?

One answer is that many teens think it cool. Another is the enormous sums of money invested in advertising cigarettes. Tobacco companies spend millions to encourage the young to start, or to continue, smoking. “The Marlboro Man”, “Joe the Camel” and others do cool things and act important while smoking-just to get you to think that if you smoke this brand, you can do these things too. This isn’t true. These people are not real and the things they do are made-up.

For tobacco companies cigarettes mean money. For us they mean disease and even death.

Shocking facts

• Over 90% of all smokers start before they are 18.
• The average age for a new smoker is 13.
• Among the 13-year-old smokers there are more girls than boys.
• Smoking kills about 3 million people every year. Some aren’t even smokers. They are people who live or work with heavy smokers.
• Babies with mothers who smoke develop more slowly during childhood.
• Cigarette smoke clogs and makes lungs awfully dirty.
• Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Seven out of 10 smokers want to quit, but can’t.
• Nicotine isn’t the only bad thing in cigarettes, there are over 400 chemicals in one cigarette that are known to be.
• Smoking causes bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.
• Pregnant women (especially teenagers) who smoke will face a lot of pregnancy ricks. They even may give birth to stillborn babies.
• Babies of women smokers are more likely to have mental disorders than babies of women non-smokers.
• Girls, cigarette packs leave no room in your purse for your compact and lipstick.
• You’ll become richer Cigarettes cost money.

Cigarettes

What’s in them?

Tobacco smoke contains hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, acrolein and formaldehyde. These chemicals paralyse the cilia (tiny hair-like processors on the cells lining the airways) which clear mucus and anything that deposits on them. Smokers’lunds are more sensitive to cancer causing chemicals because their cilia do not clear the airways effectively.

NICOTINE a poisonous and addictive drug in tobacco that:

• is often used in industrial pesticides
• is a stimulant which increases:

• heart rate (by up to 21 beats per minute)
• blood pressure
• the amount of blood the heart pumps
• the breathing rate

• stimulates the nervous system
• causes important blood vessels narrow, including those which lead to the heart and brain
• causes narrowing of the small blood vessels under the skin
• stimulates, then reduces, brain and nervous system activity
• may be a factor in causing coronary heart disease
• is implicated in the cause of reproductive and gastrointestinal disorders
• is strongly linked with the development of cancers.

Did you know?

• the more nicotine there is in a particular brand of cigarette, the more difficult it will be for the smoker of that brand to quit.
• the sense of relief or relaxation smokers report feeling when they light up is in fact the easing of any withdrawal symptoms experienced since their last nicotine ‘hit’.
• nicotine is addictive.

CARBON MONOXIDE a poisonous, odourless gas that:

• is found in car exhaust fumes
• forms when a cigarette is lit
• reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen. This starves body tissues and leaves the heart with less oxygen, thus reducing the body’s ability to exercise efficiently
• smokers inhale making them run out of breath more quickly than non-smokers, which can cause them to be less fit than non-smokers
• gets in to the blood stream and impairs vision, coordination and the perception of time
• is strongly linked to the development of coronary heart disease.

TAR the mixture of gases and particles inhaled when a smoker draws on a cigarette. This mixture becomes a black-brown sticky substance that coats the lungs and wind pipe, reducing the elasticity of the air sacs.

• contains many known carcinogens (cancer causing substances)
• contains a large number of chemical compounds, such as nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide
• can stain smokers’ fingers and teeth a yellow brown colour
• will, in time, affect the air sacs causing coughing, increased phlegm and shortness of breath.

Imagine a road being coated with tar, a similar process happens to the lungs and wind pipes of smokers because of the tar in cigarettes.

OTHER CHEMICALS (POISONS) AND GASES IN

TOBACCO SMOKE

• Acetone found in paint stripper
• Insecticide eg DDT found in insecticides
• Naphthylamine
• Phenol
• Toluidine
• Butane found in lighter fluid
• Methanol found in rocket fuel
• Polonium – 210
• Arsenic found in white ant poison
• Potassium – 40
• Toluene found in industrial solvent
• Sulphur dioxide
• Nitrogen dioxide
• Cadmium found in car batteries
• Urethane
• Benzpyrene
• Pyrene
• Vinyl chloride
• Dibenzacridine
• Naphthalene found in mothballs
• Hydrogen cyanide used in gas chambers for execution purposes
• Dimethylnitrosamine
• Formaldehyde used to preserve body tissue
• Ammonia found in floor cleaner

* Known carcinogens (cancer causing substances)

Did you know

that tobacco is a known or probable

cause of death from

Cancers of the:

lips, mouth, pharynx

esophagus (wind pipe)

pancreas

larynx

voice box

lung

trachea and bronchus

bladder

kidney

liver

cervix

stomach

tongue

penis

Stroke

Fires caused by cigarettes and

other tobacco products

Pediatric diseases:

low birth weight

respiratory distress syndrome

Respiratory diseases:

tuberculosis

pneumonia and influenza

bronchitis and emphysema

asthma

chronic airway obstruction

shortness of breath coughing

Lung cancer and diseases caused

by passive smoking

Gangrene as a result of

poor circulation

Heart attack and cardiovascular diseases:

rheumatic heart disease

hypertension

ischemic heart disease

pulmonary heart disease

cerebrovascular disease

atherosclerosis

  aortic aneurysm

Global Smoking

Statistics

• Tobacco kills nearly 10,000 people worldwide every day.
• Each year 3.5 million people die from tobacco related illnesses.
• Bases on current trends, it is predicted that over 500 million people currently living will die as a result of smoking.
• By 2020 it is predicted that tobacco use will cause over 12% of all deaths globally. This is more deaths worldwide than HIV, tuberculosis, maternal mortality, motor vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide combined.
• Smokers have a death rate three times higher than non-smokers at all ages starting from young adulthood.
• On average, smokers who begin smoking in adolescence and continue to smoke regularly have a 50% chance of dying from tobacco use. Half of these will die in middle age, losing around 22 years of normal life expectancy.
• Tobacco is a known or probable cause of about 25 diseases, the most important being lung cancer, but this number also includes heart disease, stroke, emphysema and cancer of other parts of the body.
• Studies in the UK show that smokers in their 30s and 40s are five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers.

There are around 1.1 billion smokers in the world (about one-third of the global population aged 15 and over).

• Globally, approximately 47% of men and 12% of women smoke.
• In developing countries, 48% of men and 7% of woman smoke. In developed countries, 42 % of men and 24% of woman smoke.
• By the mid 2020s, it is predicted that only about 15% of the world’s smokers will live in developed countries as there will be a shift in the use of tobacco from developed (wealthy) to developing (poor) countries.

Passive Smoking

The Facts

Smokers are not only people who can be negatively affected by smoking. Non-smokers are also in danger of experiencing serious health problem caused by breathing in other people’s tobacco smoke.

• Cigarette smoke is also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). There are three types of cigarette smoke:
  • mainstream – directly breathed in through the burning cigarette by the smoker
  • exhaled mainstream – breathed out from the smokers’ lungs
  • sidestream – which drifts from the lit end of the cigarette.

• Passive smoking is when non-smokers and smokers breath in sidestream and exhaled smoke.

Evidence that passive smoking caused respiratory illness in young children emerged during the 1970s and studies demonstrating health effects in adult non-smokers began to be reported in the early 1980s. Tobacco in Australia: Facts and issues. (Quit Victoria), 1995.

• Sidestream and mainstream smoke contain ammonia, benzene, carbon monoxide, nicotine and other harmful poisons.

• Sidestream smoke can be inhaled more deeply into the lungs because the smoke particles are smaller then those in mainstream smoke.

• Approximately 85% of smoke in an average smoke filled room is made up of sidestream smoke.
  

Effects of passive smoking

• The under child is affected by tobacco smoke by-products via its mother’s bloodstream.
• Studies have shown that smoking during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth and death.
• Evidence has shown that babies exposed to ETS in the first year after their birth have an increased likelihood of developing respiratory diseases.
• Passive smoking may also increase the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (cot death).
• Children of parents who smoke compared with children of non-smoking parents have an increased frequency of middle ear infections, bronchitis, tonsillitis and pneumonia and have reduced lung function.
• Exposure to ETS may trigger asthma attacks in children and adults who suffer from asthma, and may be a risk factor for new cases of asthma in children who have not previously shown asthma symptoms.
• In both healthy adults with respiratory problems, the inhalation of ETS can cause acute irritant effects in the upper and lower respiratory tracts.
• ETS can cause eye and nose irritation, coughing and wheezing, aggravation of hay fever and pain in the heart muscles of people with cardiovascular disease.
• There is increasing evidence that passive smoking may increase the risk of non-smokers developing lung cancer.

Tobacco

And the Environment

The growing, processing and smoking of tobacco all have major, negative impacts on our local and global environments.

• If people stopped smoking, their health and that of passive smokers would be improved and lives could be saved. The environment would benefit as well for the simple reason that there would be a reduction in:
  • the number of butts littered (butts are not biodegradable and leak toxins into the soil)
  • the number of forests being destroyed globally to plant tobacco
  • the number of forests being destroyed in developing countries where burning wood is used to cure tobacco crops. Curing takes place once the tobacco leaf is picked. Curing is the controlled drying of tobacco leaves which enhances the tobacco’s texture, colour and aroma. Curing means the leaf must be heated at high temperatures for about a week. Developing countries cure tobacco by burning wood which creates tobacco smoke. This means that many forests are destroyed in developing countries in order to cure tobacco as part of the cigarette production process
  • the side effects of deforestation (the cutting down of forests), which include soil erosion and flooding
  • global warming (caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as wood from forests)
  • the amount of paper used to manufacture cigarettes and produce cigarette advertising materials
  • the amount of cigarette wrapping and packaging that enters the waste stream.
    • Growing tobacco means that large amounts of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides are used. As many of these are toxic (some being cancer causing) pesticide-resistant mosquitoes and flies may develop. In developing countries, such insects would have a major impact on human health if they were to enter village water supplies.
    • Between one-quarter and one- third of fires around the world are caused by careless smoking. Apart from the human and property cost, such fires impact on woodlands and forests and the animal, bird and insect life which live there.

Health Benefits

of quitting smoking

• Quitting smoking, whatever your age, is beneficial to your health.

• One year after quitting, the risk of heart disease decreases by almost 50%

• Ten years after quitting, the risk of developing lung cancer is halved.

• The risk of developing lung diseases and stroke decreases slowly.

• Ten to 14 years after quitting, the risk of dying from cancer decreases to nearly that of those who have never smoked.

• After 15 years the risk of heart disease is almost the same as for a non-smoker.

• The risk of developing lung diseases and stroke decreases slowly.

• People who quit live longer than those who continue to smoke eg a smoker less than 50 years of age who quits now has half the risk of dying in the next 15 years compared to someone who continues to smoke.

• A woman who smoking before pregnancy or during the first three to four months of pregnancy reduces her risk of having a low birthweight baby.

Immediate Benefits

Nicotine and carbon monoxide leave the body in the first few hours after quitting (although it may take up to two days for nicotine by-products to leave the body).

• Within two days, taste buds revive and sense of smell improves.

• Within one month of quitting, blood pressure returns to the normal level and lung function improves.

• After three month, the lungs may once again be able to clean themselves properly (depending on whether irreparable lung damage has occurred).

• Within two months, blood flow to hands and feet improves.

Other good reasons to give up smoking

Quitting…

• saves money. At a cost of approximately $6.00 per packet of 25 cigarettes (as a 1998) the amount of money spent on cigarettes per week, per month and per year would add up to quite a large sum

• saves on cleaning costs associated with removing tobacco odours from clothing, household furnishings, carets and car interiors

• reduces rates of respiratory symptoms such as coughing and wheezing and rates of respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia

• boots confidence because of having achieved a goal

• helps whiten teeth

• helps skin look younger

• helps the lungs work better with less effort – so you won’t run out of breath as quickly

• leads to cleaner breath, hair and clothes.