A deadly stick of limited pleasure

Jun 04, 2017 News

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By Sharmain Grainger

Some have described it as cool and even sexy, but lighting a cigarette stick, placing it between your lips and inhaling and exhaling is nothing to gloat over. As a matter of fact, it is perhaps one of the easiest ways people can deliberately compromise their health.
But of course I am cognisant of the fact that the foregoing will by no means force the ardent or even casual smoker for that matter, to quit smoking.
Some smokers may need much more than a warning, divine intervention maybe, to part ways with this unhealthy inclination. There are, however, some users who may dispute that cigarettes are unhealthy simply because of the supposed calm it brings to them. But there are many others, though completely aware of the associated dangers, who persist, opting for the calm over safeguarding themselves from the known health risks.
While the main ingredient in cigarettes is tobacco, research reveals that there are thousands of chemicals in cigarettes, many of which are known to be carcinogenic. A carcinogen is something that causes cancer.
In fact, smoking has been said to be a leading cause of a number of cancers that can lead to death. Smoking has been linked to cancers of the lung, esophagus, larynx, mouth, throat, kidney, bladder, liver, pancreas, stomach, cervix, colon, and rectum, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. In addition, smoking has been said to cause inflammation and impairs immune function.
This is not at all surprising, given some of the daunting facts about cigarette smoke.
I recently came across an article which shares some particularly disturbing facts about cigarettes, which I am sure many smokers are not even aware of. The article was found at [www.lung.org]. It detailed that “There are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes. When burned, they create more than 7,000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, and many are poisonous.”
As if this was not enough, the article went on to reveal that “Many of these chemicals also are found in consumer products, but these products have warning labels. While the public is warned about the dangers of the poisons in these products, there is no such warning for the toxins in tobacco smoke.”
The author of the article took the time to detail some of the other places that chemicals contained in tobacco smoke can be found, and they are not pretty.
For instance it contains: acetone – found in nail polish remover; acetic acid – an ingredient in hair dye; ammonia – a common household cleaner; arsenic – used in rat poison; benzene – found in rubber cement; butane – used in lighter fluid; cadmium – active component in battery acid; carbon monoxide – released in car exhaust fumes; formaldehyde – embalming fluid; hexamine – found in barbecue lighter fluid; lead – used in batteries; naphthalene – an ingredient in mothballs; methanol – a main component in rocket fuel; nicotine – used as insecticide; tar – material for paving roads and toluene – used to manufacture paint.
Now if I was a smoker I believe these facts would have been enough for me to toss any cigarettes in my possession as far away as possible. But the sad state of affairs that exists is that this still may not be reason enough for smokers, who are probably addicted, to want to quit. After all, there are some who live by the motto, “something has got to kill me at some time.”
What many smokers rarely take into consideration, however, is that they are not merely affecting their own health. In fact it has been found that second and – interestingly enough -third hand smoke, could be just as dangerous.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, has said publicly that persons can be exposed to the dire effects of tobacco smoke either by their own use of the substance or through second hand or third hand smoke in the environment. Second hand smoke speaks to persons inhaling the smoke exhaled by smokers, while third hand smoke is the exhaled tobacco smoke left embedded in fabric or other materials used by non-smokers.
“People might smoke their cigarettes and then leave an area, but the smoke they leave behind is just as damaging, since it can enter somebody else’s body and can, over time, cause problems for the non-smokers too,” Dr. Persaud explained.
Quitting, when it comes to cigarettes, can never be too soon. This is in light of the fact that its dangers are far-reaching. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases, and reduces the health of smokers in general.”
CDC has noted too that smoking has been known to cause, in addition to cancers, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, among other health risks.
Moreover, deciding to quit essentially helps to lower a smoker’s risk for smoking-related health issues and can add years to their life, the CDC has assured.
Essentially, the CDC has found that quitting smoking cuts cardiovascular risks immensely. This translates to the risk of a heart attack dropping considerably in just one year after quitting. Added to this, within two to five years, a smoker’s risk of stroke may be reduced to about that of a non-smoker. Further still, the CDC has concluded that within five years a smoker’s risk for a number of cancers including that of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder can drop by half. Even more, the CDC reports that within 10 years after quitting, a smoker’s risk for lung cancer drops by half.
The best part aboutf quitting, however, is that smokers do not only safeguard their health, but also that of their loved ones and others who share the environment.

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