Smoking and Health - Essay Example

Topic – Smoking and Health Introdcution Smoking is a practice which cause more harm to human body than anything else. A cigarette contains vast number of chemicals, when smoked gets injected into human body and can cause various illnesses. Smoking is a practice which is adopted by huge amount of population throughout the world. It is not only men who are indulging in smoking but women too. According to (McNair,) “Cigarette smoke contains about 4,000 different chemicals which can damage the cells and systems of the human body. These include at least 80 chemicals that can cause cancer”. There are around 80 chemicals which has the capability to cause cancer inhuman beings. They are arsenic, benzene, tar, Cadmium formaldehyde, ammonia, carbon- monoxide and nicotine. Among this nicotine is the chemical contained in cigarette which can cause addiction and cancer among smokers. According to WHO, smoking is the most popular cause of illness and death than any disease. There are huge numbers of smoker in developed countries and their number will only outgrow in the coming years. Smoking is an age old practice, and in Arabic countries like Egypt there is a traditional practice of both men and women smoking. Smoking majorly, affects the lungs of the smoker and also can cause damage to other organs in extreme cases. With regard to smoking, the real culprit which causes death and disability to human body is tobacco. Smoking and its ill effects Tobacco being a natural component of cigarettes is comprised of a chemical knows as nicotine. Nicotine being a largely addictive chemical in cigarette, chains the person into a regular a smoker within a short span of time. Tobacco is obtained from the leaves of tobacco plant which is dry. It would be surprising to know that, the tobacco leaves are treated with large number of chemicals before them being filled in cigarettes. It is estimated around 4000 chemicals will come in to scene, as the tobacco is being treated for the production of cigarettes. So obviously, these chemicals will enter the body of a smoker while he uses cigarettes for smoking. In cigarette, tar and nicotine are the dangerous chemicals which damage the health of a smoker. The tar, a substance which is of yellowish brown colour, stains the fingertips, teeth and lungs of the smoker. Tar contains many chemicals and is the main element which causes throat and lung cancer among smokers. Smoking negatively affects outside and inside of a body and is regarded as a most dangerous silent killer. Some of the ill effects can appear faster, some in a long term period. The main ill effects of smoking can be explained as lung cancer, blindness, heart problems, increased blood pressure, gum diseases and impotence and infertility. In western countries, women also smoke almost in same proportion to men. As per (Sutter health) “Cigarette smoking greatly increases the chances that a woman will develop lung cancer. Lung cancer has increased 500% in women in the last 20 years” Generally speaking, a woman who smokes can have a decreased fertility which will result in complication in conceiving and creating off springs. A smoking woman, who is pregnant can give potential problems to the unborn child and even can cause disability in the child. Moreover, a smoking woman who also uses birth pills has a greater chance of falling prey to heart diseases and cardiac arrest. Apart from this, woman smokers can suffer from imbalanced hormonal presence which leads to menstrual problems, earlier than usual menopause and osteoporosis. The smoking also has an ill effect on the beauty of a woman, as she can appear wrinkled and elderly sooner than a non –smoking woman. It is also a fact that, women smokers have high risk of catching lung cancer than men who are smokers. Shockingly, a non –smoker can also be affected by smoking through passive smoking. Passive smoking is a process where a person breathes in smoke produced by other’s smoking. The passive smoker also have chance to get partially affected by the inhalation of cigarette smoke. Moreover it is revealed that, smoking contracts the blood vessels of heart and can thus lead to cardiovascular problems. Smoking also obstructs the passing of oxygen to the brain which can result in serious health problems. More shockingly, smoking can also lead to mutation in gene, which is a serious health concern. As per(Slovic 1)“According to the statistics from World Health Organization, approximately 4 million people die of smoking habit”. It is estimated that smoking can cause around 25 diseases among smoking population. In the developing and developed nations, millions of people die due to smoking behaviour. Smoking’s affects on different body parts When we look at the human body, we can understand the importance of various organs in the daily functioning of the body. These organs are lungs, heart, brain, liver and kidney. Now let us see the smoking’s affect on all the above said organs. a) Lungs: Smoking has the ability to hinder the regular repairing function of lungs and also cause chemicals to get trapped in the organ. As per (TLA) “When your lungs natural cleaning and repair system is damaged, germs, dirt and chemicals from cigarette smoke stay inside your lungs. This puts you at risk for chronic cough, chest infections and lung cancer”. b) Heart: Smoking contracts the blood vessels of the smoker and cause cardiac problems. c) Brain: Smoking has a dangerous effect on the functioning of the brain. Brain is connected with lungs and heart through the medium of arteries and when smoking leads to less oxygen supply, then the smokers feels anxiety, irritation and mood swings. The main culprit to this ill effect is the nicotine in the cigarette. d) Liver: Many people are not aware of the effect of smoking on the liver of a smoker. Liver being a blood filter takes the job of cleaning the toxins produced by smoking. These toxins are highly dangerous and lead to tumour and cancer in liver. e) Kidney: The use of tobacco has revealed to develop kidney cancer in smokers. This is because when the bloods get polluted by the carcinogens of tobacco, then toxins get accumulate in the kidney which is the filter of blood. Thus the kidney gets damaged and this leads to kidney cancer. Conclusion Generally speaking, everybody living in developing and developed countries knows about the bad effects of smoking but only a little percentage of people avoids smoking considering its bad side. Even though, there is lot of campaigning and warning from the government and manufactures of cigarette companies about the ill effect of smoking, there is less impact on the sales of cigarettes. For example, in countries like China, people are highly addicted to smoking. In his journal (Li 2469) writes that “In 2010, there were an estimated 301 million current smokers in China, making this country the largest consumer of tobacco in the world”. This shows that in future the Chinese population can be heavily affected by diseases. The revealed horrifying facts about smoking have the ability to alert and warn the smokers to a great extend. It is not that people don’t know about the bad effects of smoking, but they continue to nurture this habit due to their addiction to smoking. But here the thing to be noticed is the ignorance and money making morality of the government and cigarette manufacturing industries. The government should ban cigarette complete or should seriously alert the citizens to quit smoking. Quitting smoking is the prime responsibility of the smokers and they know that they are killing themselves by indulging in this bad practice. Work Cited Li, Qiang. "Prevalence of Smoking in China in 2010." The New england Journal of Medicine 10 (2011): 2469. Print. McNair, Trisha. "Smoking and your health." bbc.co.uk. BBC, May 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. . Sutter Health, . "Smoking." cardiac.sutterhealth.org. Sutter health, 2008. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. Slovic, Paul. Smoking: Risk, Perception, and Policy. California: Sage Publication Inc., 2001. 1. Print. TLA, . "Smoking & tobacco." lung.ca. The Lung Association, 24 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. . Read More