Carcinogens Present In Cigarette Smoke Cause example essay topic

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. It is estimated that almost 500,000 deaths occur every year because of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. Smoking for as few as five years can have a permanent effect on many vital organs in the body. This habit contributes to a wide number of diseases, including Coronary Heart Disease, stroke, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Peripheral Peptic Ulcer Disease, and many types of cancer. The following is a summary of how cigarette smoking affects the major systems of the human body. Smoking directly irritates and damages the respiratory tract.

As a result, a wide variety of symptoms appears including bad breath, cough, wheezing, and respiratory infections such as Bronchitis and Pneumonia. These effects can be reduced, but not entirely reversed by quitting smoking. Smoking is the primary risk factor for developing COPD i. e., Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema. The younger we begin to smoke, the more severe the respiratory illness.

It slows down the rate of lung development and lung function. As one gets older, a smoker's lung reserve decreases and as a result, he or she may be unable to run or even walk as far or as fast as their peers who have never smoked. Cigarette smoking is the major cause of lung cancer. This is because smoking causes chronic irritation of the respiratory lining. The carcinogens present in cigarette smoke cause permanent changes in the cells lining the respiratory tract. Heart disease is also one of the most common effects of smoking.

Sudden death is four times more likely to occur in young male smokers than in nonsmokers. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives are also at an increased risk for developing coronary heart disease. Stroke and blood vessel disease are also more common in smokers than non- smokers. Smoking causes poor circulation in the legs by narrowing blood vessels that supply them with blood. Studies suggest that smokers are two to three times more likely to develop Macular Degeneration, an irreversible form of blindness. The risk was significant even among those who had quit smoking 15 or more years earlier.

Cataracts are another visual problem associated with cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoke irritates the eyes, nose, throat, and gums. The tissues in these areas thicken as one continues to smoke and can eventually lead to mouth or throat cancer. Gum disease and tooth decay are also common among smokers.

Cigarette smoke irritants can also permanently damage the tissues of the larynx. The effect of this is a noticeable deepening and hoarseness in the voices of chronic smokers. Smoking causes premature facial wrinkling caused by a decrease in the amount of oxygen flow and nutrients to the skin cells of the face. The effect of this can be seen in deep crow's feet radiating from the corners of the eyes and pale, grayish, wrinkled skin on the cheeks.

Bladder and Kidney cancer are caused from smoking. It is, in fact, the strongest risk factor known for developing bladder cancer. Smoking is also a risk factor for pancreatic cancer and colon cancer. Smoking is associated with osteoporosis in women, and with spinal disk disease in both sexes. Osteoporosis predisposes women to fractures and is responsible for much disability, especially in elderly women. Infertility is more common among smokers but it is irreversible.

The damage done to smokers' babies during pregnancy often is irreversible, however. Smoking during pregnancy is associated with serious consequences for the baby as a fetus, as a newborn, and even as a child. These effects are medically diagnosed as Fetal Tobacco Syndrome. Miscarriage is two to three times more common in smokers, as are stillbirths due to the fetus being deprived of oxygen and placental abnormalities caused by carbon monoxide and nicotine in cigarette smoke. Smokers have four times the risk of having a low birth-weight baby.

These babies are more likely normal-weight babies to have impaired physical, emotional, and intellectual development. Studies have found that women who smoked during pregnancy were 50 percent more likely to have a child with mental retardation of unknown cause than were non-smoking women. Sudden infant death syndrome is significantly associated with smoking as is impaired lung function at birth. The bottom like is that smoking is costly, both to individual smokers and to society as a whole. Recent long-term studies show that about half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually die from their addiction. The other half will suffer from the many irreversible effects of cigarette smoking.