Smoking
Kills
‘Everytime you light up a cigarette
you are proving that your life is not worth living.’
When
your parents were young, people could buy cigarettes and smoke pretty much
anywhere, even in hospitals. Advertisements for cigarettes were all over the
place. Today the public is more aware about how bad smoking is for our health.
Smoking is restricted or banned in almost all public places and cigarette
companies are no longer allowed to advertise on TV, radio, and in many
magazines. Almost everyone knows that smoking causes cancer, emphysema, and
heart disease, that it can shorten your life by 10 years or more and that the
habit can cost a smoker thousands a year. So why are people still lighting it
up? The answer, in a word, is addiction.
Cigarette
manufacturers spend millions of dollars every year to convince you and your
children that smoking will make you exciting, athletic, important, sophisticated,
and sexually attractive. Quitting smoking is the best preventive medicine.
Experts estimate that stopping smoking is about 10 times more cost-effective at
saving lives than even the best medical screening tests.
The benefits are
enormous. Your heart, lungs, and blood vessels have an amazing capacity to heal
themselves when given the chance. When you stop smoking, your body starts repairing
itself almost immediately. The risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer starts
dropping immediately.
·
Acetone—found in nail polish remover. Fragrant volatile liquid ketone, used as a solvent.
·
Acetic
acid—an ingredient in hair dye
·
Ammonia—a common household cleaner. A toxic, colourless gas with a sharp odour. Ammonia compounds
are commonly used in cleaning products and fertilisers. Arsenic—used in rat poison. Containing pesticides used in tobacco farming occur in small
quantities in cigarette smoke.
·
Benzene—found in rubber cement and gasoline
·
Butane—used in lighter fluid
·
Cadmium—active component in battery acid
·
Carbon
monoxide—released
in car exhaust fumes. An odourless,
colourless gas that is released from burning tobacco. When it is inhaled it
enters the blood stream and interferes with the working of the heart and the
blood vessels. Up to 15% of a smoker’s blood can be carrying carbon monoxide
instead of oxygen.
·
Formaldehyde—embalming fluid
·
Hexamine—found in barbecue lighter fluid
·
Lead—used in batteries
·
Naphthalene—an ingredient in mothballs
·
Methanol—a main component in rocket fuel
·
Nicotine—used
as an insecticide. Colourless, poisonous
alkaloid derived from the tobacco plant. It is a powerful drug, which affects
the brain and quickly becomes addictive.
·
Polonium
– 210 -
Radioactive element – used in nuclear weapons as well as an atomic heat source.
·
Tar—material for paving roads. It’s a sticky brown substance that forms when tobacco cools
and condenses. It collects in the lungs and can cause cancer.
·
Toluene—. A highly toxic chemical. Industrial uses include rubbers,
oils, resins, adhesives, inks, detergents, dyes and explosives.
No comments:
Post a Comment