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Smoking kills
Why do we
ignore the warning?
Pay the ultimate price.
Copyright © 2006
crafeaway.com
Smoking kills is a warning used by many
governments and health organizations. One in five people die from smoking
in the US and
in UK. That is one person
every five minutes. Most of these deaths are caused by smoking related illnesses.
The number of people dieing is increasing year on year as more and more people
start smoking and most don’t stop.
There are approximately 3900 children under 18 who try smoking each day in
the US and of those around 1500 will continue to smoke for the rest of their
lives.
Why do they do it? Why do any of us do it? There
is no real rhyme or reason why we smoke except the need to ‘fit in’.
There is immense peer pressure to join in and become one of the gang. If
you are a member of a group
of teens (or adults for that matter), if more than one of them smokes there
is a curiosity that develops as to why they are actually smoking. Quite often
you will be offered a cigarette and even if you say no thanks, there will still
be a pressure whilst they are smoking for you to join them. Once they stop,
the pressure is off.
The act of smoking actually does have an initial effect on the body. It increases
your ability to concentrate because nicotine is a stimulant. Smoking is often
used as a counter stimulant to drinking alcohol which is a depressant. Once
you start to feel the euphoria from the stimulant you begin to want more. Not
larger quantities but a continual supply. After the first few cigarettes you
slowly become addicted. Smoking cigarettes is not the only source of nicotine.
It is found in cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff (a fine tobacco powder)
Once we are addicted to the need for a certain
level of nicotine in our body we go into the ‘maintenance state’ to
keep the levels up. If for any reason we have to stop for any length of time
we
become depressed and aggressive
because of the lack of nicotine. It is not something most people can stop doing
just like that. Most have to be weaned off it until they no longer need the
drug.
As we get older, and we don’t mean very
old, because people as young as 25 can die from smoking related diseases,
including lung
cancer, the risks
to our bodies increases. Nicotine is not the only lethal component in cigarette
smoke. Some of the other things found in the smoke are:
1. Formaldehyde, a tissue preservative and fungicide,
2. Tar a component of road surfaces,
3. Hydrogen cyanide a deadly poison,
4. Ammonia which is a cleaning agent,
5. Benzene a cancer causing compound,
6. Carbon monoxide a blood poison.
These are just a few of the over 4000 components of one single intake of tobacco
smoke.
Why do we ignore the warnings? The main reason is because we do not believe
it will happen to us. When it finally happens then it is too late, the rot
has set in and you will die. There is no cure to many of the diseases caused
by tobacco smoking. That is why people die!
One fatal flaw with the human psyche is very often
we do not listen to people we love when they give advice. We believe they
are preaching
to us and we ‘listen’ to
be polite but as soon as we are out of sight we forget what they said. Like
all people told that things can go wrong or we could catch some ailment we
ignore what they say until we suffer the symptoms. Then we try as hard as we
can to correct the situation but in 99% of all cases it is too late. The damage
is done.
What is the final price of smoking? The price is loss of finances, health,
friends and ultimately - Death. There is no cure but to stop as soon as you
can.
References
National Centre for chronic disease Prevention
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
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