Various Types Of Cancer And Diseases example essay topic

Every time a person smokes a cigarette the y take five minutes off of their life. Of any drug in the world, tobacco is the most dangerous. It causes thousands of deaths each year including 300,000 deaths in the United States, 50,000 deaths in Britain, and 16,000 deaths in Australia (Stepney 5). Tobacco may cause various types of cancer, heart disease, and breathing problems.

Smoking not only affects the smoker but puts everyone around the smoker in danger from secondhand smoke, which "has a much higher concentration of tar, nicotine, and all the other gases that make up tobacco smoke" (Kla g 82). Therefore, smoking in public should not be allowed because it is very harmful to the smoker and the nonsmoker. Each year 160,000 men and 140,000 women die from smoke-related illnesses. For many of these people, smoking is just a hobbie or a trend, but most smokers don't realize exactly how deadly cigarettes can be.

They contain "forty-three known cancer causing chemicals", all of which can be deadly (Larson 317). One of the main chemicals in cigarettes is carbon monoxide (CO). CO takes oxygen from red blood cells, which leaves the tissues without oxygen, also (Larson 317). CO is also the poisonous gas found in car exhaust fumes.

Cigarettes also contain an addictive drug known as nicotine. Nicotine "acts on [the] adrenal glands, causing them to secrete hormones that temporarily increase blood pressure and heart rate. ". (Larson 318). After a few months or years, smokers may come to depend on nicotine and may experience many effects on the brain and the body. Cigarettes contain many other cancer causing chemicals including: ammonia, which is found in toilet cleaners, DDT, which is a pesticide that has been banned in farming, and cadmium, which is found in car batteries (Stepney 14).

All of these are poisonous and may cause various types of cancer and diseases. Many people know that smoking may lead to various types of cancer. In fact, "cigarette smoke accounts for the vast majority of deaths from lung cancer... ". (Larson 317).

The risk of cancer becomes greater every time a person smokes a cigarette. Lung cancer begins when tar droplets are breathed in and land in the large tubes that take air in to the lungs. The tar irritates the lining of the air passages and chemicals in the tar damage the cells in the lining. For a while, the damage is repaired by the body, but eventually the damage can no longer be repaired. After one cell becomes cancerous, it begins to multiply. This then causes a growth, or tumor to develop and spread throughout the lungs and the entire body.

If people stopped smoknig then nine of the ten who used to smoke and who would have died from lung cancer wouldn't even get the disease.