Tobacco Effects on the Human Body - Essay Example

Smoking should be made illegal because it causes serious impact on human health. Human beings have been addicted to the use of tobacco since 1527. There was awareness of the health hazards caused by cigarette smoking back in the sixteenth century. The harmful effects of tobacco like causing brain damage, birth defects, and memory loss became known in the seventeenth century. The links between cigarette smoking, and cancer were established as early as 1761. The cautions that have been issued on the severe damage that cigarette smoking has and continues to cause are innumerable. A recent example of this is the Associated Press Article seen in the Detroit News of July 11, 2006, which screams "Tobacco alone is predicted to kill a billion people this [21st] century, 10 times the toll it took in the 20th century, if current trends hold". Despite this smoking has continued because of the lack of sufficient checks and measures. (1). Smoking causes a wide range of diseases. It has been proven beyond doubt that cigarette smoking causes various forms of cancer. A major cause of lung cancer is cigarette smoking. There are potential risks in developing cancer of mouth, bladder, kidneys, pancreas, stomach, liver colon and cervix and even leukemia due to smoking. Cigarette smoking is a major cause of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. Smoking is one of the modifiable risk factors of Atherosclerotic vascular disease, and its various manifestations. The probability of developing atopic disease in infancy is high as a result of mothers smoking during pregnancy. Sudden infant death syndrome (cot death) is seen in babies whose mothers were smokers. Smoking may also lead to miscarriage, and stillbirth. (2). It is not just those who smoke tobacco that pay the price for smoking. The whole community is at risk due to passive smoking. No one realizes the impact of passive smoking or second hand smoking (involuntary inhalation of smoke from someone else’s cigarette) on human health. It poses a grave threat to the health of the whole world community. (3). The potential health risks of smoking are also faced by non-smokers because of second hand smoking, including acute myocardial infarction. (4). The health hazards as a result of smoking thus impact not only on those who indulge in smoking, but to communities as a whole around the world. The price that the human race pays for this is extreme in terms of early loss of human life, and economically too. According to the WHO estimates of 2005, the number of deaths that occur from the use of tobacco all round the world every year works out to about five million, with many of these deaths occurring prior to the end of their working life. In addition many of these deaths that occur to smokers are preventable, and are wretched, early and painful deaths. (5). Entering the new millennium, the number of deaths annually, as a result of cigarette smoking in the United States of America was reported at four hundred thousand, which made up twenty percent of the annual death rate. According to the Surgeon General “smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States”. (6). Besides these mortality rates, it is estimated that smoking is responsible for serious illness among more than eight million people. The economic loss as a result of smoking arising from loss of productivity and medical costs has been recently estimated at one hundred and fifty seven billion dollars. (7). Diseases and death are unavoidable and maybe caused by various factors; some of which are well within our power to control. Cigarette smoking is one such factor. Cigarette smoking has claimed many lives due to its effects, and has forced many countries to take stringent action against its use, and ban its usage at all public places, but will this prove to be too little, too late? Going by the statistics available, the death toll by the turn of this century due to cigarette smoking will be almost ten times that of the previous century. According to Michael Eriksen, director of Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University, “even if smoking rates decline worldwide, there will be a constant or even slightly increasing number of smokers due to population increases”. (8) This calls for drastic action to reduce cigarette smoking failing which the price that is paid is going to be high. It is estimated that about twenty five million Americans, making up half of the cigarette smokers would have a premature death, as their life span would be reduced by an average of thirteen to fourteen years, due their addiction to cigarettes. Added to this damage as a result of cigarette smoking is the estimation that about five million children in the United States of America, would have premature deaths as a result of health conditions that result from cigarette smoking around them. Low socio-income groups, which can ill afford loss of earning capacity are found to be the segment of society that are most affected by the adverse health effects of smoking. The most damaging effect of cigarette smoking is that it impacts on the environment, and as a result the adverse health effects are faced by family, members, coworkers, and anyone else that comes in contact with tobacco smoke in the environment. (9). The extreme price that the human race is paying owing to cigarettes smoking makes it imperative that steps be taken immediately to reduce the damage due to smoking. Studies have indicated that cessation of smoking has the beneficial effect of reducing the adverse health effects of smoking. In a study that was conducted on 34, 439 male doctors in the United Kingdom with regard to their smoking habits, and the impact of cessation of smoking on their health condition, the study found that excess mortality was linked to adverse health effects that involved vascular, neo-plastic, and respiratory diseases. It was also found that the average lowering of length of life of smokers in comparison to non-smokers as much as ten years. Depending on the age at which cessation of smoking was adopted the resultant increase in life expectancy varied. Those who stopped at the age of thirty had their life expectancy levels restored to the level of nonsmokers, while cessation of smoking at the age of sixty resulted in an extension of life expectancy by three years. The study concluded that the extended life of nonsmokers on life expectancy over the last five decades was nullified by the increased premature mortality among smokers. The study also concluded that early cessation of smoking by the age of thirty restored almost near normal life span, and so it was necessary to effect steps to bring about cessation of smoking. (10) Cessation of smoking through voluntary means has not shown the success that has been achieved by banning cigarette smoking in environments. The proof that cessation of smoking is better through means of enforcement comes from the studies that have evaluated the affects of banning of cigarette smoking in work environments. In a study that was conducted to evaluate the affect of smoke-free work-site policies on cessation of smoking telephonic surveys were used to study employee behavior over of a period of eight years from 1993 to 2001. It was found that employees in work environments that introduced smoke-free work-site policies were 1.9 times more likely to quit smoking than those that worked in work-sites that did not have any smoke-free policies. In the case of those employees working in smoke-free work-site environments that did not quit smoking, a pronounced reduction in cigarette smoking was experienced. This led the study to conclude that policies that lead to smoke-free environments encourage employees to give up smoking, or at least reduce the consumption of cigarettes. (11). Yet another study confirms that legislation in the form of making cigarette smoking illegal has much better effect in cessation of smoking efforts. In Finland legislation to make the working environment smoke-free was enacted and implemented. In a study that assessed the impact of this legislation on work environment, nine medium-sized and large Finnish work environments were examined prior to after the implementation of the legislation. Using questionnaires the smoke exposure was assessed, and the indoor air nicotine levels were measured. It was found that there was a substantial reduction in environmental tobacco smoke subsequent to the legislation with cigarette consumption among smokers reducing. As a result of its findings the study concluded that legislation was a more efficient means to reduce smoking than voluntary means, and that smoking restrictions reduced passive smoking and the consumption of cigarettes. (12). Works Cited 1. “Tobacco Effects and Prevention Data”. TCPG. 15 July 2006. . 2. Haslett, Christopher. Chilvers R. Edwin., Hunter, A. John., & Boon, A. Nicholas. DAVIDSON’S PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE OF MEDICINE. Nineteenth Edition. London. Churchill Livingstone. 2002. 3. Kovvali, Gopala. “Clean air is the key to clean lungs: Secondhand smoke is injurious to health”. JOURNAL OF CARCINOGENESIS. 5.7. (2006). 15 July 2006. PubMed Central. . 4. Sargent, P. Richard. Shepard, M. Robert., & Glantz, A. Staunton. “Reduced incidence of admissions for myocardial infarction associated with public smoking: before and after study”. BMJ. 328.7446 (2004): 977-980. 5. Chapman, S. “Business sector shuns tobacco companies”. BMJ. 331.7529 (2005): 1414. 6. Silverstein, D. Marc. Nietert, J. Paul., Zoller, S. James., & Silvestri, A. Gerrard. “Predicted Impact of Attaining Smoking Reduction Goals on Mortality”. Southern Medical Journal. 94.2 (2001): 176-180. 7. Frieden, R., Thomas, et al. “Adult Tobacco Use Levels After Intensive Tobacco Control Measures: New York City, 2002-2003”. American Journal of Public Health. 95.6 (2005): 1016-1023. 8. "Tobacco Kills 1.4 Million Yearly". THE WALL STREET. 2006. 9. Fiore, C. Michael, et al. “Preventing 3 Million Premature Deaths and Helping 5 Million Smokers Quit: A National Action Plan for Tobacco Cessation”. 2004. Medscape Today. 15 July 2006. . 10. Doll Richard, Peto Richard, Boreham Jillian, & Sutherland Isabelle. “Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years’ observations on Male British Doctors”. BMJ. 328.7455 (2004): 1519-1528. 11. Bauer, J.E., et al. “A longitudinal assessment of the impact of smoke-free worksite policies on tobacco use”. American Journal of Public Health. 95.6 (2005): 1024-1029. 12. Heloma, A., et al. “The short-term impact of national smoke-free workplace legislation on passive smoking and tobacco use”. American Journal of Public Health. 91.9 (2001): 1416-1418. Read More