Problem/Solution - Term Paper Example

Effects of Smoking A number of short-term health problems are associated with smoking, which may include respiratory and non-respiratory harm to health, risk of use of other addictive drugs and also addition to nicotine itself. Moreover, it is well known that those young people who are in a habit of regular smoking fail to quit this habit in adulthood. The function of lungs of smokers is compromised. Heart disease and stroke may be caused as a direct result of smoking. Individuals who start smoking in early years are life start to have effects of smoking on their body by the time they reach adulthood.

The physical fitness of young individuals is affected both in terms of endurance and performance. It has been estimated that the life of individuals who smoke a pack of cigarettes per day is decreased by more than 6 years as compared to a non-smoker. Heart rate of smokers is comparatively higher than non-smokers. The risk of lung cancer is increased manifolds if the habit of smoking develops in early years of life. The complaint of shortness of breath is three times more common in smokers than in normal population who is not in the habit of smoking (Cordry, 2001).

Smoking in women can have more disastrous effects as compared to men. Among the list of preventable causes of death in women, smoking is on top. Research evidence has shown that women are ten times more prone to the development of smoking associated lung can as compared to men. The level of addiction is higher in girls who start smoking at an early age than those who start it later in their life. The most dreadful effects of smoking are seen on the reproductive health of women. Smoking has been related to an earlier menopause, pregnancy complications and in some cases total infertility.

The effects of continuing smoking during pregnancies are seen in the form of miscarriages, low birth weight infants, stillbirths, preterm deliveries and very higher rates of infant mortality. The incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) increases manifolds in children of mother who are smokers. Moreover, chances that the child of a pregnant smoker will be mentally retarded are considerable high. Second hand smoke badly affects the breathing of children affected with asthma. Among women who smoke, there is an increased risk of emphysema, bronchitis and pneumonia (Cordry, 2001).

Apart from the health effects, smoking also causes a number of social and economical effects. It is not possible to translate all the damaging effects of smoking like invalidism, suffering, early deaths and disability into monetary terms, however there are a number of areas where the effects can be calculated in financial terms. These may include loss of productivity, increased expenses on medical care and damages caused by fires which erupted as a result of accidents due to smoking (FAOUN, 1989).

A large number of smoking related deaths occur in child-rearing population age group. As a result, government expenditure increases on insurance taxes for social security survivors. According to one estimate, when 44,000 males and 19,000 females died of smoking, 31000 were left fatherless and 12000 motherless, the government had to bear an expense of around 1.4 billion dollars in the 1994 (ORITC, 2003). A study carried out by Radzeviciene and Ostrauskas gives an overview about the relation of smoking and type II diabetes.

It gives significant evidence that smoking is directly related to the disease. Similarly other studies also show that