Smoking Hazards

10 Pages 2593 Words

Smoking Hazards

As science is finding out the deleterious effects of cigarette smoke, it is becoming known that the smoker puts his and other’s life into danger by smoking.





Smoking has been traditionally criticized for a variety of reasons. The most important one among them was that it would create craving in the smoker. As science is finding out the deleterious effects of cigarette smoke it is becoming known that the smoker puts his and other’s life into danger by smoking. So far it was thought that cigarette smoke contained nicotine and some other harmful chemicals. However, newer research findings show that cigarette smoke may contain a lot more chemicals that are very dangerous to the human body. The smoke from tobacco that is inhaled by a smoker chemically consists of more than 4,000 different components, including 30-60 chemicals that cause cancer. The number of diseases and side effects that these chemicals can cause in the human body either by their independent action or by working in a cycle with each other is huge and merits immediate attention
In cigarette smoke, the solid particles make up about 10 percent of tobacco smoke, which includes tar and nicotine. The gases or vapors make up about 90 percent of tobacco smoke. The major gas present is carbon monoxide. Others include formaldehyde, acrolein, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, pyridine, hydrogen cyanide, vinyl chloride, N-nitrosodimethylamine, and acrylonitrile.
Experts have classified cigarette smoke according to the danger that they pose. The smoke that is inhaled and then exhaled from the smoker's lungs is called mainstream smoke (MS). The smoke that enters the inhaled air directly from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar, or pipe is called side stream smoke. Undiluted side stream smoke contains higher concentrations of several chemicals than the mainstream smoke inhaled by the smoker. These chemicals include 2-naphthylamine, N-nitrosodim...