Smoking is a down right filthy habit that affects not only your health, but the health of others around you. A pity on your children if you smoke around them.
And as governments continuously impose higher taxes on tobacco, the costs of lighting up can run into the thousands per year for each smoker.
So why do people still smoke? Simple answer - nicotine addiction!
When you are aware of the dangers of smoking cigarettes, you can persuade yourself and others to quit the habit. Read this article to understand the harmful effects of smoking on your health.
The habit of smoking cigarettes is addictive in nature. For this reason, even though smoking causes death for millions of people all across the world, most smokers are unable to stop smoking. Addiction towards cigarettes develop mainly because of presence of nicotine in tobacco. It is not just an addictive substance but is poisonous too. You will be surprised to know that if a condensed form of this colorless liquid is injected into human body, then that person will die within minutes. Besides, there are other chemicals that are added by the manufacturers to make the cigarette burn properly. So, you can imagine the dangers of smoking cigarettes
Nicotine:
Nicotine addiction has been found to be one of the hardest addictions to kick.
With an increase in anti-smoking campaigns, tobacco companies are upping the levels of nicotine in their cigarettes to make it all that harder to quit smoking.
Nicotine is odorless and colorless and varies in concentrations from 1 to 16 grams per cigarette. Nicotine enters the bloodstream together with tar, reaching the brain in less than 10 seconds. In less than a minute, nicotine spreads throughout the entire body. It then increases the heart rate and blood pressure, providing the smoker with alertness and a relaxing effect.
In less than 30 minutes, the nicotine effects decrease, and the smoker becomes irritable and less alert. That’s why they have the tendency to grab and light another cigarette to get a new "fix" from nicotine.
This explains the addictive effect of smoking. Before a person knows it, they have lit more than 10 cigarettes in one day.
Cigarette smoking is a risky habit. it kills more than 1,200 South Africans each day. The nicotine in cigarettes causes cigarettes to become extremely addictive, and the addiction becomes very expensive. Cigarette smoking has side effects, can cause cancer and disease, and is harmful to others.
Smoking cigarettes has side effects. One side effect is the premature wrinkling of the skin. Other side effects include: bad breath, stained hair, stained teeth, odorous hair, and odorous clothing. Smoking leads to macular degeneration, the slow loss of vision common in the elderly. Smoker’s coughs are another common side effect. It occurs when mucus builds up in the lungs, causing the smoker to have a deep-throated cough. Smoking also causes osteoporosis, which is the thinning of bones due to loss in calcium.
Cigarette smoking can cause cancer and disease. Cancers brought on by smoking include: lung, mouth, larynx, esophagus, pancreatic, cervix, bladder, kidney, leukemia, and melanoma. Each type of cancer is hazardous to your health, and can even be fatal; however, they can be prevented by not smoking. 32% of all cancer deaths in men are due to cigarette smoking). Coronary artery disease, gangrene, arteriosclerosis, emphysema, bronchitis, heart attacks, strokes, and pain in the legs are all medical conditions caused by smoking. If these diseases sound ugly to you, you can reduce your chances of any of these by resisting smoking.
Cigarette smoking is harmful to others. When smoking around other people, you’re causing them to breathe in secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke is smoke that is breathed out by someone who is smoking and breathed in by someone around them. The exhale smoke from the smoker is called the mainstream smoke and is the literal term for secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is high in toxins and is a main cause of many health issues in America today such as cardiovascular problems, asthma, and even in some cases cancer.
Tobacco smoke contains four thousand different types of chemical compounds 250 of which are toxic. Secondhand smoke can linger in the air for hours and gets harmful after just 20 minutes of
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get better grades being around it, even more harmful is you are surrounded by it all of your life.
Cancer is one of the main causes of death related to secondhand smoke in the United States. Each year about 4 000 non-smoking South Africans die due to secondhand smoke either destroying their lungs, heart, or even their nasal cavities.
Heart Disease is another big issue for non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke. It can cause a heart attack which can later on lead to heart disease. Also it damages blood vessels and messes with the circulation of the blood in your body and can cause blood clots in your arteries.
Finally lung disease and asthma are the biggest effects on the body from secondhand smoke. Many people develop asthma due to secondhand smoke mostly those who are around it frequently as a young child
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