I’m pretty sure that many have heard people around, or even doctors say that second hand smoke is worse than the person smoking the cigarette. People who smoke need to know where they smoke and around whom they smoke. Secondhand smokes causes lung cancer to people who have never smoked and it causes 7300 deaths in the US yearly (Health Effects and Secondhand Smoke). It is very true when people say that second hand smoke is the worst. The smoke being burned off of a cigarette has more harmful ingredients than the ones being consumed by the smoker. Those harmful chemicals that are being released by the burning of the cigarette is being inhaled by someone else and on top of that, the person is also inhaling the smoke being released from the smoker, making it twice as harmful and worse for the person that is surrounding. Smoke released from a cigarette contains over 7,000 chemicals, hundreds being toxic and about 70 that can cause cancer” (Health Effects and Secondhand Smoke). Secondhand smoke causes many health problems in infants and children. Some of the problems it may cause are, “frequent and severe asthma attacks, respiratory infections, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome”(Health Effects and Secondhand Smoke). Adults’ health conditions caused by secondhand smoke are heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer. Non-smokers who expose themselves to secondhand smoke increase their chances of getting heart disease by 25-30% and the chances of getting a stroke by 20-30%. There are around 34,000 premature deaths each year in the U.S among nonsmokers and it also causes nearly 8000 deaths from strokes due to secondhand smoke (Health Effects and Secondhand Smoke).
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There is up to 600 ingredients in a cigarette. When burned, it releases up to 7,000 chemicals in the air. At least 69 of these ingredients are known to cause cancer and to be very poisonous (American Lung Association). Many of these ingredients are in consumer products and have warning labels on them. There isn’t a warning label in a pack of cigarettes that have a complete list of ingredients. Just like the American Lung Association says,” While the public is warned about the danger of the poisons in these products, there is no such warning for the toxins in tobacco smoke.” One of the many ingredients in a cigarette is acetone, which is found in nail polish remover. Another ingredient in a cigarette is Acetic Acid, which is found in hair dye. Other ingredients found are ammonia, arsenic, benzene. Ammonia is found in many common household cleaners; arsenic is used in rat poison; and benzene is an ingredient that is found in rubber cement. Butane, cadmium, and carbon monoxide are also some of the ingredients in a cigarette. Butane is used in lighter fluid, Cadmium is the active component in battery acid, and carbon monoxide is the fumes that cars release through the exhaust. As you might see, cigarettes are very harmful to our bodies. Nicotine, which is one of the main additive ingredients, is used as insecticide (American Lung Association).-
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People start smoking because of many reasons, the most common is stress relief (How Stuff Works). For many years soldiers smoked cigarettes to calm their wartime stress. Another example is people experiencing stress in a high-pressured job. People may start to smoke as a way to manage the tension and nerves associated with the situation. Unfortunately, even though the stress might be over, people become addicted and in their mind they are still feeling stressed, cigarettes become a psychological crutch. Every stressful situation makes people reach for a cigarette. The cigarette becomes a stressor; it shifts from fighting a difficult situation with the help of nicotine to fighting the nicotine itself. Another reason why people may start to smoke is media influence. Advertising can have an influence the viewer’s decision-making. For example, those commercials where we see a new fashion trend or the appearance of a new trendy object in a famous actor or singer’s hand, can influence the viewers to want to look like the actor or singer or want that new object in his or her hand. In a research that was made, they conclude that, “Studies have suggested that when young viewers see a main character smoking, they’re more likely to see smoking as well as something socially acceptable, stylish and desirable”(How stuff Works). People, especially teenagers, may think smoking is cool because their favorite actor, singer, rapper, comedian, etc. smokes. One other very important reason why people may start smoking is parental influence (How Stuff Works). Many don’t realize that the closest and number one influence is parents, we want to be just like them when we’re young. We learn from what parents say and do. Children that grow up seeing their parents smoke are more likely to smoke than children raised from non-smoking parents. It is said that, “According to some studies, a parent’s choice to smoke can more than double the odds that the child will smoke” (How Stuff Works). Even if the parents don’t smoke, they can still influence their children to do so. Parents that don’t make it clear for their children that smoking is bad and why it is bad, can leave that option for them to try it at any moment. If parents aren’t strict about smoking or controlling what their children watch on TV that may influence their kids to smoke, leaving that door open for them to try a cigarette (How Stuff Works). Parents have to encourage their children to stay away from cigarettes. (How Stuff Works)
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The damage to the lungs start early in smokers. Smokers have a lower-level lung function than non-smokers. Lung function worsens while smoking, but it takes years to get to the point of noticing lung diseases. Smoking causes many lung diseases related to lung cancer. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (lung-term lung disease) is one of the many lung diseases. It is a mixture of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Nearly 12 million people are diagnosed with COPD, another 12 million have it but don’t know it because they don’t know the early symptoms of this disease (American Cancer Society). COPD is the third leading cause of death in the US, more women than men. There is no cure for COPD. Some early symptoms of this disease may include: shortness of breath during activity, noises in the chest (such as wheezing, rattling, or whistling), and coughing up mucus (American Lung Society) Overtime COPD can make it difficult to breathe even when you are asleep, “It makes people gasp for breath and feel as if they were drowning” (American Lung Society). Another disease is chronic bronchitis, a type of COPD. It is a disease where the airways produce too much mucus causing the person to force the mucus out by coughing. This is really common for smokers. The airways become swollen and the cough becomes chronic. This can lead to bad lung infections (pneumonia). There is no cure for chronic bronchitis, but quitting smoking can help the symptoms keep under control and help the damage from getting worse. Emphysema is another type of COPD (American Lung Society). This disease slowly destroys the ability to breathe. Oxygen gets in the blood by moving through the lungs, usually thousands of sacs make up the space throughout the lungs. In emphysema, the walls between the sacs break down. When the sacs are broken down, larger but fewer sacs are produced. That causes the lung space to become smaller, which causes less oxygen to get through the blood (American Lung Society). Overtime, the pace of the lungs becomes so tiny that the person has to work harder to get a breath of air. People can only breathe comfortably with the help of an oxygen tank. This disease is not curable but it is treatable if the person decides to quit smoking (American Cancer Society).
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Smoking during pregnancy can affect the baby in several ways. The baby can only get the oxygen and nutrients it needs through the bloodstream. The two most dangerous chemicals for the baby are nicotine and carbon monoxide. These two chemicals work together and reduce the baby’s oxygen and birth weight (Woolston). Both of these chemicals are responsible for premature birth and low birth weight, ”Nicotine chokes off oxygen by narrowing blood vessels throughout your body, including the ones in the umbilical cord” (Woolston). It is almost as if the baby was breathing through a thin straw. It gets even worse because the red blood cells, which usually picks up oxygen, start to pick up carbon monoxide so then it reduces the little bit of oxygen that was going through the thin straw. A shortage of oxygen can affect the baby by not letting it grow or develop properly, “On average, smoking during pregnancy doubles the chances that a baby will be born too early or weigh less than 5 1/2 pounds at birth” (Woolston). Women who smoke a pack a day reduce their baby’s weight by 1/2 pound. If women smoke two packs a day, they are taking away a full pound off of their baby’s weight (Woolston). Baby’s that are born underweight and before their official due-date, tend to not have their lungs fully developed. Not having the lungs fully developed restricts the baby from breathing on its own. The baby has to stay attached to a respirator for a days, or even weeks (Woolston). Even when the baby starts breathing on their own, they still continue to have breathing problems, ”Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are especially vulnerable to asthma, and have double or even triple the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)” (Woolston). Babies can also be born with heart defects.” Smoking during pregnancy can have a long-life effect on the children causing them to have learning disorders, behavioral disorders, and maybe even score low IQ’s (Woolston).
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Work Cited
Cunningham, Matt. “HowStuffWorks: 10 Reasons People Start Smoking” HowStuffWorks. n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
“Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 05 Mar. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
“How Does Tobacco Smoke Affect the Lungs?” American Cancer Society, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
“What’s in a Cigarette?” American Lung Association. 2014. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
Woolston, Chris. “How Smoking during Pregnancy Affects You and Your Baby.”BabyCenter, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.