TobaccoA Health Hazard

Why do more than 70 million people in the United States spend billions of dollars a year on a habit that is a known health hazard?

Is it the invitation from television commercials and printed cigarette advertising?

Is it the influence of parents who smoke?

Why do people smoke?

However, surveys among high school students who are smoking indicate that the most frequent reason is;

" My friends smoke and that’s the habit, it is hard to quit ".

Some heed the warnings they see on television and read in newspapers and other publications.

19%

30%

51%

Male (population = 57,585,000)

formernever smokedpresent

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRESENT SMOKERS Who smokes Cigarettes?

8%

58%

34%

Female (population = 64,501,000)

formernever smokedpresent

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRESENT SMOKERS Who smokes Cigarettes?

Cigarette smoking is a widespread habit, although men tend to smoke more as a group than women. An encouraging sign is the increasing number of former smokers.

The best argument the smoker gives is, “ I enjoy it “.

Most of the other arguments are only excuses.

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST SMOKING

Tobacco is made from the leaf of a plant widely cultivated in the United States as well as in other parts of the world.

Tobacco is really big business.

The Properties of Tobacco

The most harmful ingredient in tobacco is Nicotine, a powerful poison when taken internally.

Nicotine is known to raise the smoker's blood pressure, speed up the pulse, and stimulate the flow of saliva.

What is Nicotine?

Another injurious substance in tobacco is Tar.

Tars have been demonstrated to cause cancer when applied to the skin of rats and may be an agent in human cancer of the lungs, throat, tongue, and lips.

Since our forefathers procured tobacco from the American Indians, there have been arguments concerning its effect on health.

They have analyzed cigarette smoke; they have studied the health and health habits of smokers and non-smokers; they have experimented with humans as well as many types of animals.

The real case against Tobacco

In 1962, a special advisory committee of scientist in the United States was appointed by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service to study the effect of tobacco on health.

Among the committee of ten, chosen from a list of 150 scientists, there were five smokers and five non-smokers.

On January 11, 1964, the report of the Surgeon General's advisory committee on smoking was released.

Here are some of the significant findings of the committee.

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Report of the advisory committee on smoking

1. Cigarette smoking is by far the most important cause of lung cancer in men. Although the evidence is not as conclusive, it probably is also related to lung cancer in women.

2. Cigarette smoking is a significant factor in cancer of the larynx in men.

3. Cigarette smoking is the most important cause of chronic bronchitis in the United States and increases the risk of dying of pulmonary emphysema.

4. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from coronary artery disease than nonsmoking males.

The report of the committee caused-people to look at the facts.

One of the most immediate and far reaching by products of the " Smoking and Health Report " has been the impetus given to research concerning smoking.

Reaction to the report

Most smokers want a cigar or a cigarette after a meal more than at any other time.

Nicotine slows the digestive progress by as much as an hour. While digestion is delayed, acidity in the stomach may increase to the point of causing heartburn. They heavy cigarette smokers have a frequency of peptic ulcer twice that of those who have never smoked. Doctors usually advise patients with ulcers to give up smoking.

Smoking and Digestion

Does tobacco damage the Heart?

According to the National Cancer Institute, the death rate from coronary heart disease among males between the ages of 45-64 is more than twice as high in cigarette smokers than nonsmokers. The ratio among women is only slightly lower.

Smoking and the Circulatory System

Nicotine in tobacco is absorbed into the blood in the lungs. It causes the blood vessels to be come smaller, thus raising the blood pressure. Increased blood pressure increases the work of the heart by as much as 28 beats per minute.

Some investigators feel that the carbon monoxide formed during burning of tobacco and cigarette paper may be more harmful than nicotine. This poisonous gas combines with the hemoglobin in red blood corpuscles much more readily than does oxygen. A compound called carboxyhemoglobin is formed.

Carboxyhemoglobin has been found in concentrations up to 20 percent in the blood of heavy smokers. The resulting reduction in oxygen supply to the tissues may damage the heart muscle, blood vessels, and other organs.

One of the most serious circulatory complications related to smoking is a condition known as Buerger's Disease.

Buerger's Disease is more prevalent in males than in females and appears most often between the ages of 20 and 45.

When a person smokes, the nose, throat, trachea, bronchi, and lungs are subjected to the effects of the smoke as well as nicotine.

Throat Irritation is probably the most common complaint of smokers.

Hairlike cilia projecting from these membranes normally fan toward the throat and move dust particles and other foreign substances out of the air passages.

Smoking and the Respiratory System

Irritation and swelling of mucous membranes reduces the diameter of air passages and lowers the flow of air through them.

Lung cancer, Chronic Bronchitis, Emphysema, and Cancer of the Throat and Larynx are all related to cigarette smoking, according to evidence in the Surgeon General's report.

These figures become even more alarming when you consider that most cases of lung cancer in nonsmokers are due to spreading of the cancer to the lungs from some other location in the body.

Respiratory Diseases and Smoking

The death rate from chronic bronchitis and emphysema is six times higher in smokers than in non-smokers.