Smoking is a health hazardous habit which is rapidly growing in our society nowadays. It is an established fact that smoking is a major cause of morbidity and premature mortality in developing as well as developed countries. Unfortunately, the youth of today are the most effected and this menace is leading their lives towards destruction. Not only youth but the children are also falling prey to this bad habit which is quite an alarming situation. A world wide survey reveals that almost 80000 to 100000 kids start smoking everyday. Harmful effects of smoking are countless and severe to immense extent. Now we will talk about the hazardous effects of smoking on your health
Smoking in Educational institutions:
It has been observed in several surveys and modern researches that smoking is spreading rapidly in educational institutions. The future of any country and nation is the youth because it has to play a vital role in the progress and prosperity of that country and nation. So the young generation of a country must be healthy and educated to fulfill the responsibilities assigned to them. Unfortunately, the menace of smoking has indulged them because it has become a fashion nowadays due to aggressive marketing of the cigarette selling brands and their eye catching commercials. Media has also played a major role in spreading this menace by presenting the smokers in a glamorized and a cool looking manner. And there is a wrong perception among the students that smoking relieves boredom and helps in reducing tension.
A survey showed that there were almost 1.3 billion smokers world wide while 80 percent of them belonged to developing countries. According to a survey, almost 20 percent of male and 16 percent of female college students are addicts of smoking. A recent survey shows that smoking or tobacco consumption is the reason of the deaths of almost 8 million people per annum.
Passive Smoking and It’s Effects:
A non smoker when inhales a second hand smoke, he is also affected badly from that smoke which contains 7000 chemicals including 69 cancer causing chemicals, this process is said to be passive smoking. A survey of World Health Organization says that the tobacco smoke inhaled as passive smoking causes the death of almost 1.2 million non smokers.
Consequences Effects of Tobacco Smoking On your Health:
As a consequence of tobacco consumption, life expectancy of one out of four smokers is reduced by 15-20 years. Modern researches have shown that smoking or tobacco consumption is the cause of 85 percent of lung cancers. Smoking has highly destructive effects on the human body. In 2011 a survey conducted by a research department of United States revealed that 13.2 percent of smoker men and 14.5 percent of smoking women died due to smoking.
There is a common perception that smoking affects lungs but the reality is quite different; it affects the whole human body severely. It affects the heart, brain, stomach, kidney, reproductive organs, circulatory system, skin, mouth and throat.
Hazardous Effects Of Smoking on Human Body
Blood circulation:
Smoking causes the blood to become more thicker which results into more chances of blood clotting. High blood pressure causing difficulties in working of heart as well as narrowing of blood vessels which may finally lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Skin:
Smoking causes reduction of oxygen supply through blood, as a result the skin of a smoker becomes dull and more aged. The skin of a smoker may appear to be 15-20 years more aged as compared to that of a non smoker of his age.
Brain:
There are more chances of a smoker to be a victim of brain stroke as compared to a non smoker. A smoker has 50 percent more chances of brain stroke as compared to a non smoker. Smoking may cause bulges in the blood vessels of the brain due to weakness and result in the rupture of these vessels which leads towards brain hemorrhage. This results in heavy brain damage and even death of the smoker.
Lungs:
Lungs are badly affected by smoking. Symptoms are cough, cold, asthma and etc. If smoking continues, these initial stage symptoms may turn into pneumonia and even lung cancer. Researches show that 84 percent of deaths are due to lung cancer while 83 percent deaths occur due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD). Symptoms of COPD are difficulty while breathing, narrowing of air passages of the lungs and destruction of tissues of lungs. Moreover, persistent cough and frequent chest infections are also some of its symptoms. This disease is also commonly known as the Smoker’s cough.
Bones:
Smoking may also weaken the bones of the smoker. Women are more vulnerable to this disease (osteoporosis) of bone weakness as compared to men.
Stomach:
In a smoker, there are more chances of stomach cancer and ulcer as compared to a non smoker. Smoking enhances the risk of kidney cancer too. If a person smokes 10 cigarettes a day, he has 1.5 times more chances of having kidney cancer as compared to a normal person. And if he smokes 20 cigarettes a day, he has 2 times more risk of kidney cancer than a normal person (non smoker).
Heart:
Smoking damages the heart and for a smoker, there are more chances of getting heart diseases. Carbon monoxide(CO) and nicotine make the working of heart faster than normal leading to the diseases of heart. Smoking doubles the risk of heart attack.
Reproduction:
Smoking may result in the following diseases related to reproduction in a male.
-impotence
-reduction of sperm count
-damage to blood vessels of reproductive organs
Smoking can cause diseases in female related to reproduction which are:
-miscarriage
-diseased/abnormal child
Furthermore, researches have shown that fertility of a smoker women is 72 percent of the non smoker women. Smoking women have 25 percent more risk of bed death.
Mouth:
Smoking can cause oral thrush, smelling breath, staining of teeth and such other diseases and problems. A Smoker may suffer from mouth, throat and oesophagus cancer. Researches have proved that smoking is the cause of 93 percent of throat cancer.
Benefits of Quitting the Tobacco Consumption for Your Health:
By quitting the tobacco consumption a person may save himself from destruction and even premature death. There are countless benefits of quitting the smoking.
After quitting tobacco consumption for one year, the risk of heart diseases and heart attack reduces to a half. If a smoker quits smoking for 15 years, his risk of heart attack is similar to that of a non smoker. Once a smoker has stopped smoking, he can save his skin from further deterioration. 2 years of not smoking can reduce the risk of stroke to half. If smoking stopped for 5 years, risk of stroke may be similar to that of a person who does not smoke.
Conclusion:
We can say that smoking has extensive damaging effects on our health and is a cause of death for millions of people. If we want to save our people and especially our youth from destruction, we must have a proper mechanism to control and reduce the spread of tobacco consumption.
There must be strict implementation of laws prohibiting the smoking in educational institutions as well as in public. We must keep proper check and balance upon the cigarette selling brands in order to restrict their frequent and progressive commercials. And last but not the least, media should also avoid commercials which promote the Tobacco consumption.
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