CIGARATTE

• Smokers enjoy smoking. It helps

them relax and they enjoy the
taste. But is this pleasure worth
having when we know that smoking
kills millions of people a year. More
than 400,000 Americans die from
cigarette smoking in each year. In
fact, one in every five deaths in the
United States is smoking related.
 What’s in a cigarette?

Tobacco smoke contains

about 4,000 chemicals.
Some of which are harmful,
others deadly.
 Tar
Tar, a mixture of chemicals,
can cause serious lung
diseases. 70% of the tar from
tobacco smoke remains in the
smoker’s lungs.
 Tar contains
• nicotine, a powerful addictive drugs.
• poisons and irritants such as hydrogen
cyanide,
• carbon monoxide,
• phenol,
• acetaldehyde,
• butane,
• ammonia, and
• formaldehyde, together with carcinogen
(chemicals which cause cancer) including the
deadly nitrosamines.
 Nicotine
• Many people are unaware that
nicotine is more addictive than
heroine. A powerful and fast- acting
drug, nicotine reaches the brain in
about seven seconds. One of the
major effects of nicotine is an
increased heart rate and blood
pressure
 Carbon monoxide
• Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas
formed when a cigarette is lit. The
red blood cells absorb the gas more
easily than oxygen, so up to fifteen
percent of a smoker’s blood may be
carrying carbon monoxide instead of
oxygen. Breathing becomes more
difficult because the heart has to
work harder to pump less oxygen
around the body.
 Harmful effects of tobacco
– Lung cancer,
– cancer of the mouth, throat, larynx, gullet,
bladder and pancreas,
– emphysema (Thinning and weakening of
lung tissue),
– coronary thrombosis (blockage of arteries
to the heart),
– angina pectoris (pain due to narrowing of
arteries to the heart),
– and chronic bronchitis with phlegm, are all
illnesses linked with smoking.
Each year in the
United Kingdom
over 200000
people die from
these diseases
and 90% of the
people are
smokers.
No smoking
• Pankow said, Nicotine, occurs
naturally in tobacco plants as
either an acid or a base. The
basic form, known as "free-base"
nicotine, is volatile, especially
when smoked. As a result, it is
absorbed quickly and efficiently
into the lungs when a person
smokes, where it quickly reaches
the brain.

• Acidic nicotine, is slowly

absorbed before it is transported
to the brain.
Smoking and health
hazard
Diseases related to
smoking
 Heart Disease
Smoking makes heart disease more likely in
at least three ways.
2. Chemicals in tobacco smoke affect blood
platelets making them sticky. They clump
together and, along with red blood cells,
form a blockage, or blood clot, which can
slow or stop blood flow. If this happens in
the coronary arteries, heart muscle is
starved of food and oxygen and stops
working. This is called a heart attack.
2. Chemicals in tobacco
smoke weaken blood
vessel walls so they are
more likely to burst
under pressure. Nicotine
accelerates the heat
beat but constricts blood
vessels. This suddenly
increases blood
pressure, possible extra
strain on weakened
blood vessels, with
possible disastrous
results.
3. Carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke
combines with hemoglobin in red
blood cells reducing their ability to
carry oxygen. This can be
dangerous, especially in people
already weakened by heart disease.
Lungs diseases
 Cancer
Cancer is a disease in which cells
start to divide rapidly until
growth proceeds out of control.
Cancerous growth can be
triggered off by chemical
carcinogens in tobacco smoke.
By the time lung cancer is visible
on an X-ray it is quite advanced.
It can produce a growth so big
that is\t blocks a bronchus,
making breathing difficult.
One cancer can start cells dividing
in another part of the body.
These growths are called
secondary cancers, and by the
time they appear the disease is
usually incurable.
 Emphysema
Chemicals in tobacco smoke damage the
walls of alveoli in the lungs so that they
become thin and weak. Alveoli may
expand in size, or break down completely
leaving large empty spaces in the lungs
which inflate like balloons. This condition is
called emphysema.

Emphysema reduces a lung’s surface area

for oxygen absorption. It also reduces the
elasticity of lung tissue so that breathing is
painful and difficult.
Most heavy smokers develop
emphysema. It cannot be cured
because lung tissue is damaged
beyond repair. People with advanced
emphysema tale so long to exhale
that they have trouble attempting a
simple act like blowing out a candle
flame.
 Bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of air passages in
the lungs. These passages are lined with
cilia which keep the lungs clean by
maintaining a flow of mucus from the
lungs to the throat which traps inhaled
dust and dirt. Chemicals in tobacco smoke
kill cilia, so that this vital cleaning action
stops. Mucus and trapped dirt drop[ down
into the lower air passages and alveoli,
clogging them and reducing the lung’s
ability to absorb oxygen.
Continued smoking makes this condition
worse. Smoke irritates lung passageways
making the walls red and swollen. More
mucus is produced to soothe this irritation
which only succeeds in clogging the lungs
even more.

The result is acute smokers’ cough and

chronic bronchitis. The chest gets very
sore, breathing is difficult, and bronchitis
can eventually kill.
Passiv
e
smoking
 Passive smoking
Apart form its unpleasant smell, and the fact that it
irritates the eyes, tobacco smoke is dangerous to
non-smokers.
The smoke which a smoker inhales has passed
through the filter of the cigarette which removes
some harmful material. But most of the smoke
breathed in by non-smokers comes directly from
the burning cigarette end. It has not been filtered
when it is breathed in by non-smokers. His is
called passive smoking, and can theoretically
cause all of the smoking-related diseases
mentioned so far.
 Children and passive smoking
Children are at risk from parents and
relatives who smoke. If both parents are
heavy smokers their children can inhale as
much nicotine and harmful chemicals as if
they had smoked 80 cigarettes a year.
Women who smoke during pregnancy tend to
have smaller babies than non-smoking
women, and their babies are more likely to
be born dead, or die shortly after birth.
Smokers who do not smoke during
pregnancy can greatly reduce the risk to
their baby.