Smoke Gets In Your Eyes–and Ears, and Lungs, and Heart, and…
February 20th, 2008 | by Jeniffer |While we were growing up, my dad thought nothing of lighting up a cigarette and puffing away on it while we were in the house. In those days, second hand smoke was a term no one had heard of, and the dangers of smoking for the body of the smoker were just being realized.
In school, we were shown graphic images of people who spoke through machines, exhibiting holes in their throats due to the damage which smoking had done to these people’s bodies.
Breathing, and talking were difficult, and I recall the raspy voice coming over the speakers in the gym where the film was shown to us.
Even with today’s technology, however, there are still those who smoke, and there are those who continue to do so with their children nearby.
Although there are over 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, consider for a moment that at least 40 of them are poisonous and cause cancer. Some of the toxins which are contained in cigarettes include: acetone, ammonia, arsenic, benzene, benzoapyrene, butane, cadmium, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, lead, nicotine, propylene glycol, and toluene. None of us would knowingly and deliberately subject our children, or our pets for that matter, to any of these, let alone partake of them ourselves.
So What Exactly Is that Stuff, And What Does It Do?
Exposure to acetone vapours causes irritation in the eyes and the throat. It is a paint stripper.
Ammonia is a bleach. It is added to tobacco to absorb more nicotine, which helps keep you hooked on tobacco and makes quitting more difficult.
Arsenic is a poison.
Benzene is known to be a cancer-causing substance, implicated in causing leukemia.
Benzoapyrene is a potent cancer-causing chemical. In fact, it is one of the most potent ones known.
Butane affects the nervous system.
Cadmium causes liver and kidney damage. It is excreted in breast milk, and remains in the body for many years.
Carbon Monoxide causes a reduction in the ability of blood to carry oxygen to your tissues.
Formaldehyde damages your lungs, your skin, and your digestive tract. It causes cancer, and is used to preserve dead bodies.
Hydrogen cyanide is a poison.
Lead is absorbed very quickly into children, causing serious brain damage, as well as damaging kidneys, the nervous system and your red blood cells.
Nicotine is used in insect spray.
Propylene glycol is added to tobacco to stop it from drying out.
Toluene destroys the nervous system, and causes tremors.
The Dangers Of Second Hand Smoke
Second hand smoke is smoke which someone other than the smoker is breathing in.
This type of smoke is more dangerous than smoke inhaled through a filter.
Non smokers can get lung cancer and heart disease from exposure to second hand smoke.
The affects of second-hand smoke are more severe on children, because of their smaller size, and the fact that they breathe faster than adults.
Second hand smoke negatively impacts children with asthma, causing more symptoms and attacks in them.
In adults who breathe in second-hand smoke, there is a greater risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, and lung disease.
It is estimated that second hand smoke causes between 1100 and 7800 deaths per year in Canada. At least a third of them occur in Ontario.
When someone smokes inside the home, children face a greater risk of getting colds, ear infections, bronchitis, and pneumonia.
Smoking has been implicated in an increased risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) for babies.
If You Know Someone Who Wants to Quit
Quitting smoking, like any other lifestyle or habit change, is a personal choice. As with any other change, it is a decision which must be made by the person who is making the change. Friends, family, and co-workers cannot make the decision for you.
Lecturing people does not facilitate change. This is as true for quitting smoking as it is for cutting back on eating, or improving your food choices.
Telling someone smoking is bad for them is pointing something out which they are likely well aware of. It’s like telling someone who needs to lose weight that they need to eat less and exercise more. Until the individual is ready to make the change, nothing anyone else says to them will have any true impact.
Remember that smoking is a powerful addiction, one which is very difficult to recover from. Many people try repeatedly to quit, are labelled losers, and try again, only to hear more negative feedback for their efforts. People smoke for different reasons. Whatever reason they began (and in high school many people begin thinking it makes them look “cool”, or because they think people will like them if they do what they want them to), they are now hooked. It may have helped them overcome boredom, handle nervousness, relax,or even been a coping mechanism for life’s stresses.The desire to quit must be very strong in them for them to overcome the urge to smoke.
As with overeating, quitting smoking requires a change in how you think about smoking, as well as an emotional change. How you feel about smoking has to change.
Everyone who decides to quit must go about doing so in their own way.
While for some it is a comparatively easy thing (I recently met a woman in the hospital who told me she just made the decision to do so some five years before, and she had not smoked since), for others there is nothing more difficult for them to do.
Many people will attempt to quit repeatedly before it finally “takes”.
Stages of Quitting Smoking
There are five stages in quitting smoking.
First, there is the smoker who is not thinking about giving up his smoking habit.
Next, there is the stage where the thought of quitting is there, but they are not yet ready to quit.
Third is when the smoker is getting ready to quit.
Fourth is the quitting stage.
Last is the stage of remaining a non smoker.
Random Facts On Smoking
1) Although many people protest that smoking helps them to relax, in reality it increases heart rate, quickens your breathing, and raises your blood pressure.
2) The illusion of smoking being relaxing is caused by the nicotine addiction being satisfied. Smoking can also give you an excuse to take a break from whatever it is that you are doing.
3) If fear of weight gain keeps you smoking, you need to realize that not everyone who quits gains weight. Some do. However, your health is considerably more important than a few extra pounds.
4) With each cigarette, you inhale about 1mg of nicotine. 5mg of it per day is enough to be addictive for most people.
5) Men who smoke may have less healthy sperm than those who do not.
6) Women who smoke may start menopause earlier than their non smoking counterparts.
7) Damage brought on by smoking builds up over time.
Facts for Quitters
Not only will quitting smoking make you feel more in control, make you smell better to others, set a good example to your children and help you save money, within a very short time your body will begin recovering from the effects of cigarettes.
For example, within two days of quitting, you will begin to notice that your sense of taste and your sense of smell have begun to improve.
Within four weeks your lungs will work better, and your blood circulation will improve.
One year after quitting, your heart disease risk is half of that of someone who smokes.
Within three years of quitting the risk is the same as someone who has never smoked.
After 10 years, your risk of developing lung cancer is cut in half.
For additional information, contact the Canadian Cancer Society, online at www.cancer.ca
