Chapter 20 Tobacco

Pick Your Poison!

Chemicals Found in Tobacco Smoke with each puff on a cigarette, cigar or pipe, a smoker inhales over 4,000 different chemicals Of these 4,000, at least 1,000 of them are known to be dangerous The most deadly are known as nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide

Chemicals Found in Tobacco Smoke Acetaldehyde Acetone Ammonia Benzene Butadione Ethylamine Nitrogen dioxide Hydrogen sulfide

Chemicals found in Tobacco Smoke Formaldehyde Vinyl chloride Toluene Hydrogen sulfide Hydrocyanic acid Methyl alcohol Methylamine Phenol

Nicotine This is the drug in tobacco that acts as a stimulant and is addictive STIMULANT: a drug that speeds up the activities of the central nervous system, the heart, and other organs In its pure form, nicotine is one of the strongest poisons known Taken in large amounts, nicotine can kill people by paralyzing their breathing muscles

Nicotine Tolerance of nicotine can occur as early on as a second or third cigarette in a new smoker As tolerance builds a person needs to smoke more and more to produce the same feeling The Surgeon General ( the country’s highest medical authority) has said nicotine is as additive of a drug as heroin and cocaine

Nicotine Withdrawal This is a reaction of lack of nicotine Symptoms includes head aches, irritability, restlessness, increased coughing, nausea, vomiting, a general feeling of illness, intense craving for tobacco Withdrawal can begin as soon as two hours after the last cigarette physical cravings reaches its peak in 24 hours

TAR

TAR Tar is the dark stick mixture of chemicals that is formed when tobacco burns Tar is the yellowish browning substance found on the fingers and teeth of smokers it also sticks to the cells of the respiratory track where it damages cells\ The tar in tobacco smoke contains hundreds of chemical carcinogens

CARCINOGENS : cancer causing agents Cancers of the lungs, throat and mouth are cause by the inhalation of tar and tobacco smoke

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon Monoxide is a poisonous, colorless, odorless gas that is found in cigarette smoke When carbon monoxide is inhaled it takes the place of large amounts of oxygen from your blood. Carbon monoxide also makes it difficult for the oxygen left in your blood to get to your muscles and organs When a person smokes it means the heart works harder but accomplishes less

Long Term Effects of Tobacco

Long Term Effects of Tobacco tobacco products are directly responsible for the deaths of 400,000 Americans each year Worldwide, 1 in 5 deaths are related to smoking health related problems

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease This is a disease of the heart and blood vessels that kills over 115,000 tobacco users each year just in the United States! A smoker is three times more likely to suffer a heart attack than a non smoker A heart attack is 5 times more likely to kill a smoker than a non smoker Cardiovascular disease is caused by the weakening of blood vessels

Cardiovascular Disease These blood vessels are weakened because the heart is doing so much more work to circulate and push blood throughout the blood of a smoker as opposed to a non smoker Nicotine also promotes fatty build up in the walls of these blood vessels that cause blockages These blockages are responsible for heart attacks

Respiratory Disease

Respiratory Disease many smokers suffer from dry and hacking coughs Tar destroys the cilia in your respiratory tract ( little hairs that sweep away dust and other particles), these foreign particles are not cleared away and ingested causing a smoker to cough much more than a nonsmoker A person can no longer clear the passage with their cough and mucus fills the bronchial tubes

Respiratory Disease In time due to this cough the person will develop CHRONIC BRONCHITIS This is a condition in which the bronchial tubes become swollen and clogged with mucus People with chronic bronchitis find it difficult with fill their lungs with air Simple activities such as walking stairs, may find themselves gasping for air

Respiratory Disease Here is currently no cure for chronic bronchitis Smoking can lead to more serious disease such as EMPHYSEMA This is a breathing disorder in which the small air sacs in the lungs loose their ability to expand and contract Oxygen passes through the lungs and into the blood stream, while carbon dioxide passes through the air sacs and out of the body

Respiratory Disease People with emphysema cannot give their body enough oxygen or rid their body of carbon dioxide The damaged done to the lungs cannot be reversed Even if the emphysema victim quits smoking the damage to the lungs is permanent

Cancer Tobacco use is also a major factor in developing certain cancers CANCER is an area of uncontrolled cell growth that invades the surrounding tissue and destroys it Cancer can begin in any part of the body and travel to other areas In the United States, lung cancer is known to be the most deadly form of cancer