Smoking can be a contributory factor to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
Aims and objectives of the research project:
The aim of this research project is to prove the case that cigarette smoking has a detrimental effect on the health of the human body and can be a contributory factor to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Objectives:
1. Outline the compounds that make up cigarettes. 2. Explain how these compounds react in the human body. 3. Investigate the effects cigarette smoking has on the respiratory and cardiovascular system and the diseases caused by smoking. 4. Use statically resources and data to back up aim. 5. Analyse the results from this information in order to evaluate findings.
Literature Review:
Cigarettes are made from tobacco leaves and around six hundred other ingredients which are burnt to produce smoke, which is then inhaled into the lungs. Cigarette smoke contains around four thousand different chemicals which can damage the cells and systems of the human body. These include chemicals that are known to be carcinogenic, including tar, arsenic, benzene, nicotine and hundreds of other poisons such as cyanide, carbon monoxide and ammonia. Whilst it is the drug nicotine that addicts people to smoking cigarettes, it is largely these other compounds that cause lasting and often fatal damage to the cells in the human body (Fullick, 1998: 89-90). These compounds in the smoke are absorbed into the bloodstream and then carried around the body. Tar is a sticky black substance which is not absorbed into the bloodstream, but instead it accumulates in the lungs. Tar and other chemicals from cigarette smoke make smokers more likely to develop chronic diseases, within the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Every time a smoker inhales, these chemicals are drawn into the body where they interfere with cell function and cause problems ranging from cell death to genetic changes
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