FIDER, Vincent V.

BSBA 2 MM

Technical Writing and Scientific Reporting

Ms. Junabelle Manaoat

The Effects of Tobacco in Human Body

Hypothesis:
Smoking cigarettes can have multiple effects in the body which can cause
various not just respiratory illnesses but to all parts of the body
Tobacco has remained to be the most widely used drug all over the
world despite its negative effects to human health. It is used by both male
and females. According to several researches it has been noted that tobacco
smoking is responsible for more deaths annually than any other related
hazards such as road accidents. Several studies show that smoking
cigarettes has been proven dangerous to ones health which can lead to
different illness and diseases. There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette
smoke and 200 of those are known poisons. Smoking cigarettes for as few as
a couple of years can have permanent effects on the body. Smoking can
have an effect on heart and lungs; mouth and throat; arms, legs, skin and
the mind.
Among the cancers that smokers have an increased chance of
contracting are cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, and esophagus (the
throat); cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lungs (breathing organs);
cancer of the stomach, liver, pancreas, kidneys, cervix, bladder, and rectum
CDC). Chronic diseases whose progression or contraction have been shown
to be connected to cigarette smoking are numerous; among them are stroke,
blindness and macular degeneration, congenital birth defects in children of
smokers, heart diseases such as aortic aneurysm, early abdominal aortic
atherosclerosis in young adults; coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma; tuberculosis and pneumonia;
reduced fertility, etopic pregnancy, and other reproductive health effects in
women and male sexual function and erectile dysfunction in men; diabetes,

hip

fractures,

rheumatoid

arthritis;

below

average

immune

system

functioning; and finally general overall diminished health (CDC).

Smoking of tobacco affects the body both internally and externally.
Some of the effects of occur after one has started smoking while others
occur in the long term life of the smoker. Amongst young people who engage
in smoking at early age it leads to addiction hence the youngsters cannot
easily leave the smoking. As a result of addiction, most young people
continue to use tobacco that eventually lowers the functioning of lung and its
growth rate. Furthermore; in adults it causes heart disease such as heart
attack and stroke. Scientists suggest that someone who smokes a pack of
cigarettes each day lives less 7 years of his life expectancy and to the early
smokers it increase the risk of lung cancer infection. Lung cancer is the most
common ailment risk that smokers have to endure with as they smoke in
their day to day life. So as an individual continues, he/she increases the risk
of cancer infection.
Recent studies have suggested that the level of psychological distress is
more in smokers than in non-smokers adults thus it indicates that smoke
leads to exposure of high levels of mental stress. Moreover, it was found out
that smoking is a cause for most divorce in many couples. It suggested that
smokers have a 54 per cent greater chance of divorcing their wives than
nonsmokers. Tobacco smoking is a dangerous drug that kills most people
over the world many campaigns are been carried to discourage young
people from tobacco smoking and recommending a way for the already
addicted.
One big area of where smoking harms the body is the heart and lungs.
Smoking causes your heart to work much harder and faster than normal,
meaning tremendous stress on that area. Smokers have a greater chance of
developing irregular heartbeats than non-smokers. Blood pressure levels
increase as well as the chance of a heart attack or stroke because the blood
vessels are constricted. Even though the heart is beating much faster,

Effects on the Body (1997) it is not able to fully circulate the blood and can
result in congestive heart failure. Because the lungs have to handle so much
smoke, the bronchial lining must thicken for protection. This thickening can
lead to a greater chance of lung cancer. Effects on the Body (1997) as the
lungs continually push smoke toxins through the body; they will lose the
ability to add oxygen to the blood, which can cause difficulty in breathing
(emphysema).

he tars found in cigarettes are carcinogenic, which means cancerous. To

name just a few, some tars that are found in cigarettes include benzyrenes
(which is the chemical in rat poison), aromatic amines, chrysene, phenols,
cresols, carboxylic acid, metallic ion, radioactive components, pesticides and
additives. The gases from cigarettes are carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
nitrosamines, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanide,
ammonia and pyridine. More importantly, let us forget last but not least that the
nicotine that everyone wants to get high off of is actually the natural insecticides
that plants make. So in reality they are smoking and getting high off of insecticide
to only names a few. There are over three thousand chemicals in cigarettes
including the environmental smoke that comes from them.

Since there are a large number of smokers in spite of the harmful risks to
their health, it is difficult to avoid being in their presence and being affected by
their hurtful habit. This brings about the question of to what extent is passive and
side stream smoke harmful to other. People may not realize how second hand
smoke really affects nonsmokers, so let me point out some facts about it. The
concentration of nitrosamines is ten to fifteen times more in side stream smoke,
which is the smoke that burns off the ends of the cigarette. Passive smoke is the
smoke that a smoker inhales that becomes filtered in their lungs and then

exhaled. This kind of smoke is dangerous also but not as much as side stream
smoke.
Another huge effect that smoking has on the body is on the skin and in
the arms and legs. Smoking causes vasoconstriction. This is where the blood
vessels in your skin narrow and oxygen and nutrients cant get to the skin
cells. Vasoconstriction usually occurs in the facial area where one might get
premature wrinkling with, Effects on the Body (1997) crow s feet around the
eyes and pale, gray skin on the cheeks. Smokers are usually the only group
at risk of getting peripheral vascular disease. This is where the blood vessels
in the arms and legs have narrowed, which in turn may lead to an
amputation of a limb in the future.
At the contact point and start of inhalation of the smoke, the mouth and
throat, are other areas of concern. When a person smokes, the tar in the
cigarette gets caught up in the respiratory tracts. This causes bad breath and
is why when you breathe, you have it. Continuous smoking causes the throat
lining to thicken which in time will eventually cause throat cancer. Other
nasty effects of continuous smoking are discolored teeth, tooth loss and gum
disease.

The effects of smoking leads to the deterioration of the brain, thereby

causing a reduction in a persons ability to think. Mental Health (1995)
Smoking is one of the four heart disease risk factors that can affect your
cognitive skills. Other risks are high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. It
is said that the more risk factors a person has, the more likely their mental
functions will decline. It is important for people who possess these risk
factors to work on reducing them. The nicotine in cigarettes makes smoking
very addicting. A person trying to cut down or even quit smoking will begin
to go through nicotine withdrawal. Nicotine causes a chemical dependency,

so that the body develops a need for a certain amount of nicotine at times.
Most symptoms of withdrawal will occur within forty-eight hours from quitting
to being gone after about six months. There are many symptoms of nicotine
withdrawal, which are stressful and very unpleasant. Mental Health (1995)
Sweating or rapid pulse, insomnia, nausea or vomiting, physical agitation,
anxiety, headaches, irritability, difficulty concentrating, depression and
increased hunger are some characteristics to nicotine withdrawal.
The respiratory system has several built in safeguards to protect it against
disease. The filtering that takes place in the upper airway helps prevent
infectious and irritating substances from entering the lung. The trachea and
the lung produce mucus, which helps trap and carry away contaminants.
These contaminants are moved through the lungs by cilia, which are tiny
hairs that beat rapidly back and fourth. When smoke is inhaled through the
mouth, smokers automatically bypass the first safeguard, the filtering action
of the nose. While smokers often produce more mucus in response to
smoking, they are less able than nonsmokers to m ove the mucus out of their
respiratory system. This happens because cigarette smoking paralyzes and
eventually destroys cilia. It also changes the makeup of the mucus-secreting
glands and consequently the mucus itself. In addition, mucus glands
sometimes become plugged and less able to produce mucus. The end result
is that smokers' mucus, contaminated with potentially harmful substances, is
more likely to become trapped in the lung tissue. (Sherman 355) Smoking
impairs lung growth and lung tissue in children and adolescents. Another
type of lung-growth impairment occurs in smokers aged 20 to 40. During
this stage of life, the lungs undergo a type of growth called the plateau
phase. This phase is shortened in smokers, which shortens the time with
which tobacco- induced diseases develop. Smokers who take up smoking at
younger ages are more apt to suffer smoking-related disease after shorter
periods of time than are smokers who begin smoking later in life. (Peterson
215-218)

Twenty percent of people who smoke get heart disease. Smokers in

there thirties and forties have a heart-attack rate that is five times higher
than their nonsmoking peers. Smoking lowers HDL levels (also called good
cholesterol), causes deterioration of elastic properties in the aorta, the
largest blood vessel in the body, and increases the risk for blood clots.
Smoking also increases the activity the sympathetic nervous system, which
regulates the heart and blood vessels. The more a person smokes the higher
the chance of developing coronary heart disease and experiencing a heart
attack. (Davis) In women who smoke the risk for a heart attack is about 50%
greater than in male smokers; researchers speculate that tobacco smoke
may increase cardiovascular disease in women through an effect on
hormones that causes estrogen deficiency. Quitting will rapidly decrease the
risk

of

developing

heart

disease,

but

long-term

smoking

may

still

permanently damage arteries. Stud ies continue to confirm the dangers of

second-hand smoke; one study reported that exposure to second hand
smoke is just as dangerous in the workplace as it is at home. Regular
exposure to passive smoke is now estimated to increase the risk of heart
disease in the nonsmoker by between 25% and 91%, causing 30,000 to
60,000 deaths each year. According to one report nonsmokers who spend as
little as a half-hour in a smoke- filled room suffer a serious drop in blood
levels of antioxidants, such as vitamin C, which may be important for heart
protection.

There are many bad effects of smoking related to health, social and
psychological level which can harm the life of a person in great detail. For
smoking people grow the tobacco tree whose leave which are mostly smoked
or chewed and sniffed for many different effects. Smoking which involves
tobacco which then contains a certain chemical known as nicotine. Nicotine

is highly addictive chemical, and a smoking person can become a slave of

nicotine for very long time if he/she is not cautious a first time. Tobacco other
than nicotine contains nineteen different cancer causing chemicals, and
together these chemical are called tar. People smoke for different reasons
such as they want to produce a sense of being well, to boost their mood, and
to improve short term concentration and memory. Until recently smoking was
consider good thing, and there were many advertisements for smoking in
newspaper, television, and other mass media.

Smoking is major health risk, but still people give different reasons for
smoking most of these justifications are not very reasonable. Smoking is
mostly starts at young age because teenagers think that if they start
smoking they will be considered as mature, but of course they are wrong and
causing serious health risk for themselves. Smoking by many is way to relax,
but it comes with greater health risk for damaging the brain. Smoking is very
bad habit thus it should be quitted by people, smoker don't risk their lives
but lives of other which inhale the smoke (Greaves, 2002).

Smoking effects differ from a person to another person depending

upon exposure to chemicals of the cigarette. Smoking is not only public
health issue, but also it has great financial cost on the nations. Until we stop
smoking, more people will be addicted, more people will get sick, more
families will be devastated by loss of loved ones, bring great damage to
medical system of the nations. Harm of smoking on body of a person is
enormous, and smoking should be ban from all public places. Smoking can
easily make a body weak, and cause a slow and steady death. There many
facts related to smoking and deaths, for instances in United States there
were about 443,000 deaths by smoking, which is about one in five death

every year. It is also believed that each year more deaths happen due to
smoking compared to combine the deaths by Human Immunodeficiency
Virus (HIV), alcohol, suicides, illegal drugs, murder and vehicle injuries. Due
to smoking ninety percent of all lung cancer in men is caused, and eighty
percent of all lung cancer deaths in women. It is also estimated that deaths
ninety percent of all deaths by chronic obstructive lung diseases are caused
by smoking.
Human body is very vulnerable to harmful effects of smoking, and it can
harm our heart, lungs, blood circulation, bones, stomach, mouth, eyes, skin,
reproduction and fertility. Smoking effect on heart and lung in very serious
manner, in case of heart nicotine raises blood pressure and blood gets clot
easily. Carbon monoxide raids the blood of oxygen and causes development
of cholesterol deposits in artery walls. In case of lungs smoking causes
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is group of disease that
includes

asthmatic

bronchitis

and

emphysema.

Chronic

obstructive

pulmonary diseases (COPD) are well known as silent killer diseases. Most of
smokers don't know that they are affected by it until it is too late to save
them. There is no cure for such type of diseases and almost fifteen percent of
smokers develop chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD). Harm to
blood circulation start at by smoking, and veins and arteries get hard,
narrow, and also get coated by fat deposits. This can then lead to problems
such as cold skin, ulcer, cramps, pain and blockages in veins which can
cause a stroke and heart attack. Smoking makes bones weak and breakable,
and women need to be careful because they are more likely to suffer by
osteoporosis than non-smokers. Smoking can harm stomach, eyes and skin.
Stomach damages can affect vital organs in the body, and increase the
chance of stomach cancer. There are even more danger for eyes such as eye
diseases related to Graves' ophthalmopathy, glaucoma and cataract. Worst
thing which can be done by smoking is causing a permanent blindness.
Smoking lessens the amount of oxygen for the skin. This can mean that skin

start to age more quickly and making you look like dull and grey. Smoking
effect on reproduction and fertility are very serious. Smoking can increase
risk of feebleness, and can damage sperm by reducing sperm count and
casing testicular cancer (Team, 2009).

Everybody knows the harm of smoking but nobody cares to stop it, this
attitude towards smoking should be changed. Smoking is vilest habit of
about 1.2 billion which are addicted to smoking. It has no benefit for smoker
and the society. Smoking impact on society is beyond health and illness.
Smoking regularly impacts the financial resources of smoker especially when
people have limited resources. For instance in England economically poor
households spend about 2.5 percent of income on smoking per week. It is
believed that economic burden of smoking exceeds one percent of European
GDP. Society has to pay the cost of smoking by morbidity and mortality.
Direct cost of smoking is related to health care and indirect cost is related to
the loss of human capital due to premature deaths, productivity losses, and
unpaid income taxes. Currently estimate the total smoking attribute cost of
two leading groups of smoking related diseases in COPD and Cardiovascular
Disease (CVD), amount between 105.83 to 130.31 billion euros. In Australia
smoking net social cost is between 2.1 to 3.4 percent of their GDP (Kaiser S,
2009 ).

Smoking effect on children and teens are intense. Smoking passively

can impair child's ability at mathematics and reading by leading researchers
claims. Study of smoking environment is essential, and one such study
shows that if people at home smoke regularly then children get low marks in
test. In journal of Environmental Health Perspectives measure that exposer
to smoking at home leads to cotinine in children. Cotinine is common in

children by second-hand smoke. Exposer of smoking at home to children is

important issue which government must resolve to keep the children's safe
(Society Guardian, 2005 ). Teenager starts to smoke at very young age thus
cause the buildup foundation of diseases in their bodies. Teenage at large
think smoking as fashionable thing and get involved in smoking. Children
and teenager are building blocks of our society if they are in safe
environment then society are in safe environment. Implication of life is lost
due to smoking, and as result average person's loses 10 to 15 minute of
exquisite life whenever smoking. Smoking is largest preventable cause of
unwanted deaths around the world. Smoking cause more than twenty five
diseases and most of them are life intimidating, and strappingly suspected to
relate to smoking. Average smoking reduces the total life expectancy to 6.8
years, heavy smoking reduces the total life expectancy to 8.8 years.
Furthermre smoking reduced the number of disease free life by 5.8 years.
Stop smoking at age of forty and increase your life expectancy to 4.6 years
(Baijal, 2010).

Over the years smoking has proven harm for our society and one such
harm is at psychological level. Smoking seems to take control of our mind
and make us do illogical things. Some strong smoking people are increasing
becoming threat for their families and a burden on the society. Most smokers
being during young age, and this leads to risk taking or rebellion later in their
lives. Presence of high status model and peer also leads to encouragement
of smoking. Smokers say they smoke to relieve the feeling of stress but in
truth they have higher stress level than non-smokers. Psychologist Hans
Eysenck has developed a personality profile of smokers, and Extraversion is
trait in smoker in which they tend to be impulsive, sociable and excitement
seeking

individuals

(Eysenck,

1965).

Psychologists

also

believe

that

personality and social factors are great causes of smoking. Now it is

responsibility of government around the world to take action against smoking

and ban it from public places. Governments around the world should provide
quitting treatments of smoking in different society so we can eradicate the
diseases from our society.

In conclusion smoking is not only harmful to you but all the people
around you. People who smoke have increased their chance of getting heart
diseases and lung cancer. Smoking is bad addiction and as soon we can get
rid of smoking it's better for people around us. We should reduce the number
of people who smoke in our society because it destroys our society from its
core. It is absolute necessity to fully understand the harms of smoking and
stop it from taking lives of virtuous peoples. The smoking should be quitted
by smoker to avoid financial losses the harmful effects of health. Smoking
strongly contributes to sterility thus both male and female should discourage
it. We know almost every disease which is linked to smoking and causing the
deaths thus it is time to say no to harmful effects of smoking.