Essay on The Costs of Cigarette Smoking. - 888 Words

The Costs of Cigarette Smoking Cigarette smoking causes a variety of life threatening diseases, including lung cancer, emphysema, and heart disease. In the UK about 120,000 people die each year due to smoking. A half of all smokers die from smoking related diseases.0 There are many ingredients in tobacco smoke which are harmful to our health in different ways.1 Some of the ingredients are tar, carbon monoxide, nicotine and other chemicals and additives such as ammonia, arsenic (a poison used in insecticides and weed killers), benzene, hydrogen cyanide and many other.2 Tar deposits on the lungs can cause lung diseases. Carbon monoxide and other chemicals reduces the oxygen carrying†¦show more content†¦10 Emphysema is an irreversible lung disease associated with chronic bronchitis and excessive coughing.11 In emphysema, the air sacs in the lungs are enlarged and damaged.12 This reduces the surface area of the lung available for exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Severe emphysema causes breathlessness which is made worse by infections. It is estimated that smoking is associated with 75% of deaths from emphysema.13 The chemicals in tobacco can damage the lining of the blood vessels.14 This helps in the build up of fatty material along the inner lining o the arteries, this is known as Atheroma (sometimes called hardening or furring of the arteries).15 Atheroma is the main cause of heart disease, it is also a cause stroke due to damage to the brain arteries.16 Atheroma in the blood vessels of the penis causes impotence in man.17 Smoking also increases the blood pressure and it decreases the amount of oxygen carried by the red blood cells.18 Carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke combines with the haemoglobin to form carboxyhaemoglobin which is a non reversible reaction and this reduces they oxygen carrying capacity of the red blood cells. 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