How Cigarettes Harm Our Health

If you are still unaware of this fact, let me remind you - tobacco is one of the most addictive substances on earth. To understand this truth is not a rocket science, since no other narcotic is so frequently and persistently abused by people all over the world. Every cigarette that you smoke at a rate of about 11-12 puffs supplies your body with substantial quantities of different poisons. A heavy smoker who consumes one to two packs a day inhales every year up to 150,000 doses of poisonous smoke.

Cigarette’s addiction is a well-documented fact, which is also confirmed by extensively spread industrial manufacturing of tobacco products, which is still a highly lucrative business, even if it is so heavily taxed in many countries.

Why is tobacco so irresistible? The answer is in the fact that it contains ample amounts of the strongest drug nicotine, which the smoker inhales and the chewer absorbs through the mucous lining of his mouth. Alongside with nicotine, the tobacco addict receives a great number of other poisons, carcinogens, and hazardous chemical substances. These toxic compounds are formed during smoking when tobacco reacts with fire. The amount of them is mind-boggling: over 4,000 awful chemicals end up in the smoker’s lungs with every puff; and the same amount of harmful substances end up in the environment polluting both the air and the lungs of non-smokers around. So, number one hazard of cigarettes is due to nicotine and other dangerous chemicals formed in the process of smoking.

When tobacco is burnt on the tip of a cigarette, hundreds of billion tar units are generated in every cubic inch - and this is what makes tobacco smoke visible. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company made an analysis of cigarette smoke and revealed that it contains more harmful substances in a more concentrated form than a heavy car exhaust. The average smoker inhales daily from 10 to 70 particles of tar, depending on the frequency of smoking and the cigarettes’ brand, which means that every year she stuffs her lungs with up to 250 grams of this black, gooey matter packed with carcinogenic compounds. So, number two hazard of cigarettes is due to tar.

However, tobacco smoke we can see with the naked eye constitutes only a tiny part of cigarette’s output. More than 90 percent of cigarettes smoke is invisible, but not less harmful. The remaining percentage constitutes the “vapour part” of smoke, which is packed with a whole array of toxic gases, among which are nitrogen oxides, acrolein, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, and carbon monoxide. Unfortunately, almost all these gas particles end up in the smoker’s body, as well. Since the Americans smoke hundreds of billions cigarettes every year and about one tenth of their poisonous gas compounds end up in the air, you can calculate yourself at what rate we pollute our houses, cars, and the environment. So, number three hazard of cigarettes is due to toxic gases and pollution.

Tobacco smoke supplies the lungs of everybody, including active and passive smokers, children, and heath-conscious individuals, with detectable amount of deadly poisons that cause a whole range of diseases, the most profound of which are heart problems, atherosclerosis, cancer, asthma, emphysema, pregnancy complications, and foetal development retardation. In comparison with the harm inflicted by tobacco consumption, all other forms of chemical addiction represent a negligible part of heath risks. For example, illnesses directly related to tobacco consumption claim as many lives every day as those caused by “hard drugs” do in half-a-year. So, number four hazard of cigarettes is due to disease.

Nitrosamines, extremely harmful carcinogenic substances, are also part of cigarette smoke. These chemical compounds are subject to strict governmental regulations when occurring in processed meats and bacon, but not in tobacco products. It is estimated that, with food, we get an average of one microgram of nitrosamines daily, while a pack of cigarettes will supply the smoker with about 17 micrograms of this deadly substance! So, number five hazard of cigarettes is due to nitrosamines that cause cancer.

Well, cigarettes carry not only nicotine, tar, nitrosamines, addiction, pollution, and disease. Tobacco claims every year millions of victims’ lives due to smoking-related illnesses, especially emphysema and lung cancer. Hence, the most profound hazard of cigarettes is simply death…

John Burke

Canada Pharmacy