The Cost Of Smoking
Imagine the air that you and your children breathe is being polluted with hundreds of chemicals and toxic substances, but if you smoke you don't have to imagine. With each cigarette you smoke you are polluting your lungs and the air around you with over four thousand chemical compounds and over four hundred toxic substances. These include ammonia, which is found in household cleaners, cyanide, which is an extremely poisonous substance and butane, which is used to fuel cigarette lighters. Cigarettes contain three main substances with damage our health. Tar, which causes lung cancer, Carbon Monoxide, which binds to haemoglobin and reduces its oxygen carrying capacity, and Nicotine, which is highly addictive and is comparable to heroine and cocaine. In this essay I will discuss the major health concerns that are linked with cigarette smoking, which includes lung cancer, Coronary Heart Disease and even mental health problems.Coronary Heart Disease, or CHD as it is more commonly known, is the most common health problem that is linked with smoking. For the heart to function properly it needs a constant flow of blood, and if this supply of blood is interrupted or reduced it can lead to CHD. This is most commonly due to atherosclerosis,
Also in younger women, who use oral contraceptives have an increased risk of having a heart attack, a stroke or other cardiovascular diseases, and this is more noticeable in women over the age of 45. Cancer is the second biggest killer in Northern Ireland next to CHD, and it is estimated that one in three people will contract cancer at some point in their lives. Smoking is a main cause of cancer, especially cancers of the lung, voice box (larynx), throat, oesophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas. Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer. In 1999, 22% of all cancer deaths were of lung cancer, and it is linked with smoking more commonly than any other form of cancer. In 1999, over 34,000 people in the UK died from lung cancer, and over 80% of these deaths were caused by smoking. Cancer is a disease caused by a malignant growth or tumour caused by an abnormal and uncontrolled division of body cells. Cancer tends to spread as the malignant tumours invade and destroy the normal structures and often travel in the blood or lymphatic system to other tissues or organs around the body. which is the build up of fatty materials in the arteries or thrombosis, which is the formation of a blood clot in the arteries. When this happens and the heart does not receive enough blood a myocardial infarction or heart attack takes place. Smoking has an effect on the rates of CHD as within one minute of beginning to smoke, the heart rate starts to rise and within the first 10 minutes of smoking may increase by up to thirty percent. Smoking will also increase the blood pressure, which causes the blood vessels to contract, meaning the heart must work harder to supply enough oxygen to the whole body. It is not only the person who actually smok
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Approximate Word count = 1174
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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