Custom essays on Smoking is a public health challenge

Smoking is much more than just a bad habit, it’s a big psychological, medical and social problem. Not all smokers are aware of the fact that tobacco smoke contains more than 30 toxic substances: nicotine, carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, tarry substances, organic acids and others, and nearly 1200 harmful substances.
Nicotine is a nerve poison. By its toxicity it is equivalent to hydrocyanic acid. For human a lethal dose of nicotine is from 50 to 100 mg, or 2-3 drops. This is the dose daily received by a smoker after smoking 20-25 cigarettes. Systematic absorption of small, non-fatal doses of nicotine becomes an addiction. In animal experiments and observations of people it has been found that nicotine in small doses stimulates nerve cells, causes respiration rate and heart rate, cardiac rhythm disturbances, nausea and vomiting. In high doses, it slows down, and then paralyze the central nervous system cells. Nicotine also influences the endocrine and sex glands.
Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, which reduces blood level of oxygen, which is especially dangerous for pregnant women and people with heart diseases. It develops anoxia in human’s body.
Ammonia irritates the mucous membrane of the mouth, larynx, trachea, bronchi. That’s why smokers usually have looseness gums and sores in the mouth. Long-term smoking causes narrowing of the glottis, hoarseness.
In recent years, scientists pay much attention to substances that cause cancer. These are first of all benzopyrene and the radioactive isotope polonium-210. If smoker exhales smoke through a handkerchief, a brown spot will stay on the white fabrics. This is the tobacco tar. It consists of a lot of substances that cause cancer (Haustein, pp. 27-64).
Lethal dose of nicotine is contained in one – two packs of cigarettes. Smoker doesn’t die because this dose is introduced into the body not at once, but gradually. Besides, the effect of nicotine is partly neutralized by the other poison contained in tobacco – formaldehyde.
After each smoked cigarette systolic and diastolic blood pressure increase. It also increases number of heart beats and its volume per minute. In addition, cigarettes cause vasoconstriction of peripheral arteries. Besides, smoking contributes to the development of states, leading to the formation of blood clots and leads to an increase in total cholesterol in blood and the level of free fatty acids in plasma. This is not the full list of bad cigarettes’ influence on cardiovascular system.
Already in 20s of the previous century it has been suggested that there is connection between smoking and cancer. However, conclusive evidence was obtained only in the 50-ies. It has been proven by experiments, cigarette smoke contains carcinogens, acting as stimulators for tumor growth (Sloan, pp. 35-49).
According to the researches smoking is the main cause of malignant tumors of the lips, oral cavity and pharynx, larynx, esophagus, trachea, bronchi and lungs. 95% of deaths from lung cancer (according to the statistics obtained in different countries) were malignant smokers who smoked 20 – 40 cigarettes a day. Moreover, among patients with laryngeal cancer 80-90% of them are smokers.
Tobacco smoke is inhaled not only by the smoker, but it enters the surrounding air. It basically creates the conditions for passive smoking. It is clear that such air is polluted with nicotine, carbon monoxide, ammonia, tar, benzopirenom, radioactive substances and other harmful components. Children, who live in smoke-filled rooms suffer from respiratory diseases more often. Children of smoking parents in the first year of life have an increased frequency of bronchitis and pneumonia and risk of developing serious illnesses. Tobacco smoke retards solar ultraviolet rays, which are important for a growing child, it affects metabolism, affects the absorption of sugar and destroys vitamin C (Jacobson, pp. 56-60).