The Cost Of Smoking
Imagine the air that you and your children breathe is being polluted with hundreds of chemicals and toxic substances, but if you smoke you don't have to imagine. With each cigarette you smoke you are polluting your lungs and the air around you with over four thousand chemical compounds and over four hundred toxic substances. These include ammonia, which is found in household cleaners, cyanide, which is an extremely poisonous substance and butane, which is used to fuel cigarette lighters. Cigarettes contain three main substances with damage our health. Tar, which causes lung cancer, Carbon Monoxide, which binds to haemoglobin and reduces its oxygen carrying capacity, and Nicotine, which is highly addictive and is comparable to heroine and cocaine. In this essay I will discuss the major health concerns that are linked with cigarette smoking, which includes lung cancer, Coronary Heart Disease and even mental health problems.Coronary Heart Disease, or CHD as it is more commonly known, is the most common health problem that is linked with smoking. For the heart to function properly it needs a constant flow of blood, and if this supply of blood is interrupted or reduced it can lead to CHD. This is most commonly due to atherosclerosis,
Tar contains about 4,000 chemicals, a number of which are known to cause cancer. In 1999, 22% of all cancer deaths were of lung cancer, and it is linked with smoking more commonly than any other form of cancer. It has also been found that smoking can have effects on men and women's fertility and sexual function in men. Whilst they are craving the cigarette, the become stressed and this only stops once they have had a cigarette, and so many smokers see this as calming them, but they would not be stressed if they were non smokers. Nicotine reaches the brain within ten seconds of the inhalation of tobacco smoke, and begins to on certain neurons, the working cells of the brain. Children are specifically vulnerable to the effects of passive smoking, as their bronchial tubes are smaller and their immune systems are less developed and they are more likely to develop respiratory and ear infections due to passive smoking. Smoking accounts for seventeen percent of the UK's deaths from CHD, which is around 26,000 people per year. The nicotine from the tobacco smoke causes the brain to release two other substances that act as stimulants. A woman who continues smoking during pregnancy is more likely to experience difficulties than a non-smoker or a woman who quits smoking before pregnancy. All of the chemicals in cigarette smoke pass through the umbilical cord from the mother to the foetus, and because of this there is less oxygen getting to the unborn child, and this makes the child's heart beat faster and could also make the child grow more slowly. Some of these are carcinogens, capable of causing cancer independently and others are co carcinogens, which react with other substances in tobacco smoke to cause cancer. Tobacco smoke can increase the risk of having a miscarriage, bleeding during pregnancy, the child being born with an infection, having a premature birth and having an ectopic pregnancy. Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer. Nicotine stimulates the brain to release a substance called dopamine, which is related to pleasant feelings. Cancer is a disease caused by a malignant growth or tumour caused by an abnormal and uncontrolled division of body cells.
Common topics in this essay:
Ireland CHD,
Disease CHD,
Northern Ireland,
,
Carbon Monoxide,
tobacco smoke,
passive smoking,
Heart Disease,
lung cancer,
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heart attack,
cigarette smoke,
Coronary Heart,
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smoking pregnancy,
develop asthma,
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conceived cycle,
form cancer 1999,
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Acceptance Essays
