As the individual smokes, most parts of the body are affected by harmful chemicals in the cigarette, cigar, etc. Smoking kills about twelve hundred people each day. Many people know smoking can cause lung cancer, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, it also causes many other cancers as well as aneurisms and pneumonia.
Delving deeper, smoking causes cancer of the mouth, tooth decay, gum disease and bad breath. In addition, resulting narrowed blood vessels causes lack of oxygen to the brain, which in turn causes strokes.
Smoking also affects the eyes. Smoking increases the chances of a person developing cataracts two to three times that of a non-smoker. Globally, cataracts is the leading cause of blindness.
Next, hydrogen cyanide in the smoke attacks the lining of the bronchi in the chest, inflaming them, causing the “smoker’s cough,” common among smokers, as the name suggests. Infections are likely to follow, since the bronchi are weakened. Also, smokers are ten times as likely as non-smokers to get lung cancer and emphysema. For men, when they begin smoking, they increase their chances of lung cancer by twenty two percent, for women, it is lower at twelve percent.
In addition, the nicotine in cigarettes raises the blood pressure of smokers, causing blood clots. The carbon monoxide depletes oxygen from the blood, leading to a build up of cholesterol on the walls of the arteries. These two occurrences are a recipe for disaster, as they together increase the risk of a heart attack.
The digestive system is also affected. Cancer of the esophagus and throat can result. When you smoke, stomach acid secretion increases, causing heartburn and ulcers and according to data, smokers have a higher rate of deadly pancreatic cancer. Also, the high blood pressure that smoking brings can damage the kidneys, which together form the body’s filtration system and when damaged, usually results in death if they are not replaced soon. Also, cancerous cells can form in the bladder causing cancer of the bladder. In 2003, approximately 57,400 new cases of bladder cancer were diagnosed in the United States and an estimated 12,500 people died from the disease.
To conclude, the health effects of smoking are measurable. Forty percent of heavy smoking males will die before reaching retirement age, compare that to only eighteen percent of non-smokers. Women smokers gamble with the increased risk of cervical cancer and pregnant smokers risk the lives and health of their unborn.
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