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Revision as of 07:09, 19 August 2002

Smoking and more specifically tobacco smoking, is a habit (or addiction) of inhaling tobacco smoke. The smoke among thousands of other chemicals contains nicotine.
The most widespread is smoking of cigarettes, but it is followed by pipe smoking and smoking cigars.

Health effects of smoking

It has been scientifically established that tobacco smoking is cause of numerous diseases. The most important is lung cancer and other cancers of the respiratory tract. Cancers of larynx and tongue are also quite important causes of mortality and morbidity. There are hundreds of known carcinogens, such as benzene, present in cigarette smoke. The length of time that a person continues to smoke as well as the amount smoked increases their chances of contracting lung cancer. However if someone stops smoking then these chances steadily decrease as the damage to their lungs is repaired.

Smoking also increases the chance of heart disease. Several ingredients of tobacco lead to the narrowing of bloodvessels, increasing the likelihood of a block, and thus a heart attack. Others lead to high blood pressure. Also, some chemicals damage the inside of arteries, for example making it possible for cholesterol to adhere to the artery wall, possibly leading to a heart attack.

Other diseases linked to tobacco smoking :

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic bronchitis in particular
• stroke
• peripheral vascular disease
• birth defects
• Buerger's disease
• impotence

Passive smoking, whereby exhaled smoke is inhaled by other people, has recently been identified as a much larger cause of lung cancer in non-smokers than previously believed. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1993 concluded that about 3,000 lung-cancer related deaths in the US were caused by passive smoking every year, however the true extent is still being contested among scientists.

Smoking continues to be a major problem because of smokers' addiction to the nicotine in tobacco smoke, and the vigorous marketing of cigarettes by the tobacco industry.

In many countries smoking in public buildings is now prohibited. Many office buildings (are required by law to) contain specially ventilated smoking areas.

Nicotine is a powerful stimulant and is one of the main factors leading to the addictiveness of tobacco smoking. Although the amount of nicotine inhaled with tobacco smoke is quite small (most of the substance is destroyed by the heat) it is still sufficient to cause addiction. The amount of nicotine absorbed by the body from smoking depends on many factors, including the type of tobacco, whether the smoke is inhaled, and whether a filter is used. On average it takes about seven seconds for the substance to reach the brain.

See also:

• Chewing tobacco
• Snuff