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The Consequences of smoking.

It is clear to me that smoking is highly addictive and bad for your health. I will explain to you how smoking is can be harmful to you and others around you. My four key points used to show this are, Health issues caused by smoking tobacco, the harmful chemicals tobacco contains, the statistics of death caused by smoking tobacco and how harmful second hand smoke really is.

Smoking increases the risk of developing diseases of the respiratory and circulatory systems. These include cancers of the lung, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus and pancreas. Smoking also increases the risk of developing diseases of the urinary tract, pelvis, bladder and digestive tract. Also other various health issues caused by smoking like Hair loss, Smelly hair, Wrinkled skin, Early ageing, Hearing loss, Eye irritation, Cataracts, Blindness, Loss of smell, Slow healing skin wounds Narrowing & hardening of arteries, Gangrene, Stained fingers, Decreased fitness and Weakened bones. I believe smoking is not worth the use of your eyes. Smoking is a major cause of blindness, with about one thousand three hundred people in New Zealand having untreatable blindness due to current and past smoking.

When you smoke you inhale more than four thousand chemicals many of which are highly toxic. Including acetone (paint stripper), ammonia (toilet cleaner), cyanide (rat killer), DDT (insecticide) and carbon monoxide (car exhaust fumes). People keep smoking, even when they want to stop, because the nicotine in cigarettes is as addictive as cocaine and heroin, nicotine is a powerful naturally occurring drug highly toxic. Approximately 1mg of nicotine is absorbed by the body, per cigarette smoked, going almost directly to the brain. 8-20mg is contained in each cigarette. Nicotine is both a relaxant and a stimulant, it changes brain activity - improving reaction times, ability to pay attention and brings on euphoria which brings on addiction. I have felt nicotine’s extreme cravings and mild euphoria.  As I have learnt that the cravings grow, the euphoria disappears. Leaving you unfulfilled. These facts were supplied by http://www.smokefree.co.nz/

Smoking is the greatest single cause of preventable early death in New Zealand. Tobacco is the only consumer product that will result in an early death for one out of every two people who smoke it. . Each year about four thousand seven hundred New Zealanders die prematurely because of smoking – that’s twelve deaths every day, or seventeen percent of all deaths. Tobacco is the only consumer product that kills half its users when used as the manufacturer intends. Globally, one point three billion people smoke. Each year tobacco causes five million premature deaths. I am familiar with the pain of losing family members to smoking related death.

Second-hand smoke is the leading environmental cause of preventable death in NZ. Around three hundred and fifty New Zealanders are killed by others people’s tobacco smoke each year. Second-hand smoke has been shown to cause coronary heart-disease, lung cancer, acute stroke, eye and nasal irritation and nasal sinus cancer. Adults who have never smoked and who live with smokers have a Fifteen percent higher risk of death than those living in a smoke free household. This study strengthens the case for a causal association between second-hand smoke and mortality, and adds weight to the evidence of harm caused by second hand smoke. These facts were supplied by http://www.sfc.org.nz/infohealtheffects.php I believe it is not ok to smoking around young children, because second hand smoke could cause them health issues later on in life.

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