Posts Tagged ‘smoking and health’
Smoking and Tobacco Use :: Fact Sheet :: Smoking Cessation :: Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) :: CDC
Smoking Cessation
Cessation and Interventions Fact Sheets
Nicotine Dependence
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Dangers of Cigarette Smoking
Smoking is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. About 420,000 deaths occur each year as a result of smoking cigarettes. Individuals who smoke are likely to develop peptic ulcer disease, and are more likely to develop cataracts, as opposed to non-smokers. People, who smoke, are ten times more likely to die from larynx cancer, esophagus, chronic obstructive lung disease, including emphysema. The risk becomes even higher if cigarette smoking is combined with alcohol use or with occupational exposure to certain types of toxic substances, such as asbestos.
Many individuals continue to smoke knowing these dangerous conditions, because they believe that smoking has benefits like stress relief, anxiety, pleasure, or weight maintenance, thinking that quitting smoking is difficult and won’t be an easy task to accomplish. Individuals who quit smoking however have a significantly lower life expectancy than continuing smokers. When smokers can quit at a young age, it is a huge benefit because they are exposing themselves relatively to fewer cigarettes.
Why give up smoking
Smoking and health This is most definitely the most important reason to give up smoking.
Numerous smokers find out the hard way, when it is too late to do something about it and the damage has already been done.
Smoking is the cause of many diseases, some fatal and others somewhat debilitating, yet all seriously affect your health and therefore affect your quality of life as well as the life of those who are nearest and dearest to you.
Smoking Laws
Smoking – inhalation and exhalation of the fumes of burning tobacco in cigars and cigarettes and pipes. Some persons draw the smoke into their lungs; others do not. Smoking was probably first practiced by the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Originally used in religious rituals, and in some instances for medicinal purposes, smoking and the use of tobacco became a widespread practice by the late 1500s. Tobacco was introduced into Europe by the explorers of the New World; however, many rulers prohibited its use and penalized offenders. By the end of the 19th cent. mass production of cigarettes had begun, and the smoking of cigarettes became prevalent as the use of cigars and pipes declined. Despite controversy as to the effects of smoking and bans on smoking by certain religious groups, the use of tobacco continued to increase.
Health Effects
Smoking is considered a health hazard because tobacco smoke contains nicotine, a poisonous alkaloid, and other harmful substances such as carbon monoxide, acrolein, ammonia, prussic acid, and a number of aldehydes and tars; in all tobacco contains some 4,000 chemicals. In 1964 definitive proof that cigarette smoking is a serious health hazard was contained in a report by the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee on Health, appointed by the U.S. Public Health Service. The committee drew evidence from numerous studies conducted over decades. They concluded that a smoker has a significantly greater chance of contracting lung cancer than a nonsmoker, the rate varying according to factors such as the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the number of years the subject smoked, and the time in the person’s life when he or she began smoking. Cigarette smoking was also found to be an important cause of cancers of the esophagus, nasopharynx, mouth, larynx, kidney, and bladder as well as a cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema, and heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases. Since then it has been found to be an independent risk factor in male impotence. Smoking also increases risks associated with oral contraceptive use and exposure to occupational hazards, such as asbestos. Pipe and cigar smokers, if they do not inhale, are not as prone to lung cancer as cigarette smokers, but they are as likely to develop cancers of the mouth, larynx, and esophagus. Those who use snuff or chewing tobacco (sometimes called “smokeless tobacco”) run a greater risk of developing cancer of the mouth.
Smoking Kills – The danger of smoking
Smoking Kills
NONSURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: Is smoking the most preventable cause of premature death in the United States?
In the Mix – Discussion Guide
SMOKING: THE TRUTH UNFILTERED
DISCUSSION GUIDE
On PBS (Check local listings)
Secondhand Smoke
Secondhand Smoke What is secondhand smoke?
Secondhand smoke is also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) or passive smoke. It is a mixture of 2 forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco: sidestream smoke (smoke that comes from the end of a lighted cigarette, pipe, or cigar) and mainstream smoke (smoke that is exhaled by a smoker).
When non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like smokers do. The more secondhand smoke you are exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in your body.
Why is secondhand smoke a problem? Secondhand smoke causes cancer
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BioMed Central | Full text
Drugs Can Help You Quit Smoking – How to Quit Smoking
Only 5% to 10% of smokers who try to quit succeed. For the rest, the quick onset of withdrawal symptoms—craving, irritability, hunger, and headache—is too much; the brain begins to raise hell and demand a fresh dose of nicotine, which binds to certain receptors and causes the pleasurable release of dopamine.
In the face of 40 years of public-health drumbeating, smoking bans, and social pressure, that’s an amazing failure rate. The profound power of nicotine addiction made it logical to search for ways to chemically intervene. According to the U.S. Public Health Service, antismoking meds can double or even triple your chances of being able to quit. (If you smoke less than 10 cigarettes a day, you’re probably not addicted, and you should talk to your doctor about another course of action to deal with the habit.) Heavy smokers can consider taking prescription drugs such as bupropion (an antidepressant) or varenicline (a “nicotinic receptor partial agonist”).
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