Key Concepts
Vocabulary: addictive drug, nicotine, stimulant, carcinogen, tar, carbon monoxide, smokeless tobacco, leukoplakia
The Health Risks of Tobacco Use
Health Risks of Tobacco Use
Main Idea: All forms of tobacco contain chemicals that are dangerous to your health.
Advertisements for tobacco products often feature healthy, attractive people, sending the message that using tobacco has no health consequences. So, what’s the truth about tobacco? All tobacco products display warning labels stating that using tobacco products can be harmful to an individual’s health.
Medical studies have shown that tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the United States. Any form of tobacco use, such as smoking, chewing, or dipping tobacco, can cause health problems. Smoking has been linked to lung disease, cancers, and heart disease. About 90 percent of adult smokers began the habit as teenagers. Most teens think that they can just quit whenever they choose. The reality is that quitting is difficult. It’s easier to avoid tobacco use rather than quit later.
Nicotine
Tobacco users have difficulty quitting because tobacco contains an addictive drug, a substance that causes physiological or psychological dependence. All tobacco products contain nicotine, the addictive drug found in tobacco leaves.
Nicotine is a stimulant, a drug that increases the action of the central nervous system, the heart, and other organs. Using nicotine raises blood pressure, and increases the heart rate.
Poisonous Substances in Tobacco Smoke
Tobacco is an addictive and toxic drug. It’s a carcinogen, a cancer-causing substance. Tobacco smoke contains tar and carbon monoxide. It also contains the same poisonous compounds found in products such as paint, rat poison, and toilet cleaner.
Tar
Cigarette smoke contains tar, a thick, sticky, dark fluid produced when tobacco burns. The tar damages a smoker’s respiratory system by paralyzing and destroying cilia, the tiny hair like structures that line the upper airways and protect the body against infection. Tar also destroys the alveoli, or air sacs, which absorb oxygen and rid the body of carbon dioxide. Lung tissue is also damaged, reducing lung function. Smokers are susceptible to diseases such as bronchitis, pneumonia, emphysema, heart disease, and cancer. As many as 87 percent of cancer deaths result from smoking.
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, and poisonous gas, is another compound found in cigarette smoke. It is absorbed more easily than oxygen. Carbon monoxide deprives the body’s tissues and cells of oxygen. It also increases the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease’ hardening of the arteries, and other circulatory problems.
Pipes, Cigars, and Smokeless Tobacco
Main Idea: No tobacco product is safe to use.
The dangers of tobacco use are not limited to smoking cigarettes. The smoke from pipes and cigars also causes serious health consequences. Cigars contain significantly more nicotine and produce more tar and carbon monoxide than cigarettes. One cigar can contain as much nicotine as an entire pack of 20 cigarettes. Pipe and cigar smokers also increase the risk of developing cancers of the lips, mouth, throat, larynx, lungs, and esophagus.
Another form of tobacco that some believe to be safer to use than cigarettes is smokeless tobacco, tobacco that is sniffed through the nose, held in the mouth, or chewed. Smokeless (sometimes called “spit”) tobacco products are not a safe alternative to smoking. The nicotine and carcinogens in these products are absorbed into the blood through the mucous membranes in the mouth or the digestive tract.
The harmful chemicals of smokeless tobacco are absorbed into the body at levels up to three times the amount of a single cigarette. That’s because the exposure to harmful chemicals in smokeless tobacco is often three times longer than that of a smoked cigarette. Using smokeless tobacco also irritates the sensitive tissues I of the mouth, causing leukoplakia (loo- koh-PLAY-kee-uh), or thickened, white, leathery looking spots on the inside of the mouth that can develop into oral cancer. Smokeless tobacco causes cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, stomach, and pancreas. People who chew eight to ten plugs of tobacco each day take in the same amount of nicotine as a smoker who smokes two packs of cigarettes a day. Smokeless tobacco is as addictive as smoked tobacco, making quitting just as difficult as it is for someone who uses smoked tobacco.
Harmful Effects of Tobacco Use
Main Idea: Tobacco use causes both short-term and long-term damage to your body.
Health officials have warned the public about the dangers of tobacco use for several decades. Figure 20.3 shows how smoking can damage one body system, the lungs. If a pregnant female smokes, she risks the health of her fetus, as well as her own health. Pregnant women who smoke during pregnancy risk giving birth to an infant with a low birth weight and other health problems.
Short-Term Effects
Some effects of tobacco use occur immediately. These short-term effects include the following:
Long-Term Effects
Over time, tobacco use can cause damage to many body systems, as shown in Figure 20.4. People who are exposed to others who smoke can also suffer many health problems. Here are some of those health problems:
Other Consequences of Tobacco Use
Main Idea: As well as health risks, tobacco use is costly.
Making the decision to avoid the use of tobacco products will safeguard your health.
Costs to Society. Tobacco-related illnesses cost the United States about $167 billion each year. Productivity suffers when smokers call in sick due to tobacco-related illnesses.
Cost to Individuals. A person smoking one pack of cigarettes a day will spend about $3,561 a year on the habit.
Legal Consequences. Selling tobacco products to individuals under the age of 18 is illegal. Using tobacco products on school property may lead to suspension or expulsion.
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