Forms of tobacco use
Cigarettes. Cigarettes are among the best-selling products in the world, and tobacco production is the most profitable in the world. At the end of the cigarette is a filter that keeps moisture, tar, nicotine, suspended smoke particles, and other harmful impurities out of the smoker's body. Most often they are made from recycled cellulose acetate. To improve the effect of the filter increase its length, reduce the diameter of the filaments, add various substances to the fiber, such as activated carbon. Thanks to its use, a considerable part of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide and benzene is retained. Modern research shows that green tea added to the cigarette filter can almost completely eliminate the harmful effects of nicotine. Cigarette filters are sometimes made with flavor additives to improve the taste of cigarettes.
Different brands of cigarettes have different flavors, different strengths. These characteristics depend on many conditions - the variety and ratio of different tobaccos, aromatic additives and sauces, the quality of the filter, the density of the filling, the breathability of the cigarette paper.
Cigarettes are made using so-called botanical tobaccos to which commercial tobaccos are added in a certain proportion. The price of cigarettes depends on the number of marketable varieties. To improve the flavor of cigarettes, sauces or flavorings are applied to tobacco leaves that have not yet been cut.
Cigarillos are smoking pipes rolled from paper that look like thin cigars. The combustion temperature of cigarillos is lower than that of cigars, which allows you to add a variety of flavors (vanilla, coffee, cocoa, cherry, apple, etc.).
Tobacco in cigarillos does not have any additives that accelerate combustion. This is the difference between them and more common cigarettes.
Cigarillos may also be made entirely of tobacco. In this case, they differ from cigars in that a cigar consists entirely of rolled sheets of tobacco, while a cigarillo, in addition to the outer (cover) sheet, contains sliced tobacco (size club, purito, panatella).
Cigar (hep. cigarro) - a roll of tobacco leaves cylindrical (or close to it) shape, which can be smoked as it is.
The name Cigar comes from the word stitar, which denotes in Mayan the process of smoking.
The main purpose of smoking a cigar, as smokers believe, is to get pleasure from the tobacco aroma. Also the cigar is often a sign of high social status of the smoker.
Like other ways to smoke tobacco, cigar smoking has a lasting negative impact on both the health of the smoker and the health of those around him or her who do not smoke.
Hookah is a smoking device that filters and cools inhaled smoke. The role of the filter is played by a vessel with water, wine or other liquid. The vessel is inserted into the smoking cup, connected to a tube, the end of which goes under the water. Above the water level of the vessel departs another tube, which is attached to the smoking pipe. When smoking in the vessel of hookah, it creates a negative pressure so that the smoke rises through the liquid and through the tube with chubook gets into the lungs of the smoker.
Hookah was invented in medieval Iran and spread quite rapidly throughout the Muslim world, from Indochina to Morocco. In Europe it gained some popularity in the XIX century, in connection with the fashion for oriental exotics. In Russia hookah is not difficult to buy in any store of oriental souvenirs
Smoking pipe - A tobacco pipe, smoking pipe, a simple device for smoking cut tobacco. Smoking a pipe was one of the first ways of consuming it. The pipe was widespread until the early 20th century, when it was heavily supplanted by cigarettes and cigarettes.
The Eastern modification of the smoking pipe is the hookah, but it is not only used for tobacco.
Snus is a type of tobacco. It is produced and consumed mainly in Sweden and Norway. It is also present in Russia. In many countries of Europe it is forbidden to sell snus, but it is allowed to use it.
Snus is a representative of smokeless tobacco class (chewing and snuff are belonged to it), it is not smoked, but unlike other kinds of smokeless tobacco it is not chewed as well, and is put under the upper lip for time from 5 till 30 minutes during which nicotine gets into human organism.
The main components of snus are tobacco, water and salt. In the process of manufacture the tobacco mass for snus is subjected to the process of pasteurization for destruction of microbes and undesirable substances which are contained in the tobacco plant. Snus comes in two kinds - Portion - packed in tea-like sachets of different weight (from 0.3 to 1 gram) and Loose.
The advantage over traditional smoking is significantly less harm to the health of the smoker (i.e. the user of snus) and those around him.
It contains nicotine, but as it is smokeless tobacco, no tar is formed when using it, no products of cigarette paper combustion are deposited in lungs. Also, snus makes it possible to consume nicotine in places where smoking is prohibited (for example, in airplanes on long flights). Snus contains considerably less carcinogens than classic sucking tobacco (for example, wet (American) snuff).
As a consequence snus is positioned as a relatively safe substitute for cigarettes. Nevertheless, the use of snus can lead to an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases, degenerative processes of the oral mucosa. At the same time, at the moment there is no convincing evidence of a link between snus consumption and the development of oral, gastrointestinal and lung cancers. There is no proven link with the occurrence of tooth decay.
Snuff is a type of snuff; it is a tobacco leaf crushed to a coarse powder.
Snuff is legal in the Netherlands, Belarus, Bulgaria and Ukraine. It can be bought only from the age of 23, but in Ukraine and Belarus, of course, there are exceptions, which can be often met.
There are two kinds of snuff
European (dry) is an analogue of snuff; it can be both original and with the addition of camphor, menthol, eucalyptus, etc., snuff with such additives is often used for medicinal purposes.
American snuff is much stronger than European snuff. It is intended for oral use, that is, a certain portion of tobacco poured into the can is placed in the mouth, mostly under the lower lip. There are two main types of American snuff - with sweet and salty flavors. Originally American snuff was very popular in the southern states of the United States among cowboys and the rural population.
Nowadays, the most in demand is American wet snuff. It is made from dark types of tobacco dried using fire drying. After this the tobacco mass is crushed, sugar is added and then the mass is subjected to artificial aging.
The main brands are Gletcher's Prise (Poschl tabak, Germany), Gawith Apricot (Poschl tabak, Germany), Medicated 99 (Wilson, UK), Ozona (Poschl tabak, Germany), President, Lotczbek (three varieties - with vanilla flavoring, "Brazilian blend" and "menthol blend").
Snuff is often confused with snuff. These tobacco products differ primarily in the production process: the tobacco mass for snuff is not put through the fire drying process, it does not contain sugar and is pasteurized to kill microbes.
The main active agent of snuff - nicotine, while sniffing a track of snuff, the dose of nicotine entering the body is much higher than that of a smoked cigarette, because when smoked, most of the nicotine is burned. The mucous membrane of the nose absorbs nicotine much more strongly than the lungs. Therefore, the effects of snuff are much more powerful.
When it comes into contact with the nasopharyngeal mucosa, snuff causes irritation, which leads to nasal congestion.
Snuff can be consumed by a variety of methods. The most common is through a twisted bill, you can also use a tube from a disassembled pen. Sniffing large tracts of snuff causes dizziness and relaxation in the muscles of the limbs. When sniffing after drinking alcohol - the effect of snuff is intensified.
A cigarette is a sleeve of tissue paper, which is filled with crushed tobacco. At the end of the shell is glued another, rolled from a thicker paper (80-90g/sq.m.). The sleeve with tobacco takes about one third of the total length. The tube of denser paper at the same time allows you to hold the cigarette in your hands, serves as an additional barrier to get tobacco in your mouth, but its main work is the function of the mouthpiece.
Cigarettes vary in the length of the mouthpiece and the quality of the tobacco.
Generally, cigarettes differ from cigarettes in the lack of a filter and the paper structure: unlike cigarette paper, cigarette paper burns slowly rather than smoldering.
Smoking cigarettes, as well as other ways of tobacco smoking, has a steady negative impact on the health of the smoker and on the health of people around him or her who do not smoke.
Mahorka is good on its own, but is widely used as a raw material for nasvay. It is such green balls made of a mixture of tobacco, ashes from burning flax, spicy plants, oil and burnt lime.
Nasvay is not smoked but chewed. Or rather, they put it in their mouth by the upper or lower lip and just hold it. You are not allowed to swallow saliva, otherwise you will start vomiting and diarrhea.
Nasvay is not a bad remedy for someone who quits smoking. But becoming a habit, it becomes dangerous, causing chronic diseases of the mouth and gastrointestinal tract.
The dried leaves of Mahorka contain from 1 to 10 % nicotine and 15-20 % organic acids, including more than 10 % citric acid. They are used to make a grind for smoking.
Tobacco as a narcotic
The main active ingredient in tobacco is nicotine. Its content in tobacco leaves usually ranges from 1 to 1.5%, but in some varieties it reaches 6-8%. A single cigarette weighing 1 g contains usually 10-15 mg of nicotine, while a 10 g cigar contains up to 150 mg of the substance.
In its pure form, nicotine is a clear oily liquid with a pungent taste. The amount of nicotine in the filter of a cigarette is enough to kill a mouse. In fact, nicotine is as toxic as hydrocyanic acid.
Nicotine is an extremely strong poison that mainly affects the nervous system, the digestive system, and the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
A systematic study of the effects of nicotine on the living organism has given scientists grounds for assuming a two-phase reaction to its introduction. First there is an increased irritability and excitability of the various systems and organs, and then this condition is replaced by oppression.
Smokers instinctively felt this difference in the process of nicotine consumption. Purely psychologically, "to cheer up", for example, when working tiresomely, people take frequent smoke breaks. But in fact they make the organism even more tired because of the oppressive action of nicotine (the second phase of influence). Those who think that smoking can calm a person down try to use the depressing effect of nicotine. So, with some responsible or unpleasant conversation, the smoker instinctively puts a cigarette in his mouth.
The smoke drawn in by the smoker distills the nicotine from the tobacco leaves. It dissolves quickly in water, so it is easily absorbed through the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, bronchi, and, when ingested with saliva in the stomach, through the walls of the gastrointestinal tract.
It is often said that a drop of nicotine kills a horse. This is indeed true. So why does a person endure huge doses of tobacco in the process of chronic tobacco use? First, because the dose of nicotine in each individual cigarette is far from lethal, and only when several cigarettes are smoked in a row can a state of shock occur, leading to death. Secondly, nicotine poison is quickly addictive. In addition, it is soon eliminated by the kidneys from the body.
Even one cigarette is harmless to a living organism. It is estimated that the fatal dose of nicotine for humans is 1 mg per 1 kg of body weight, which is about 50-70 mg for teenagers. But it should be remembered that the growing body is about twice as sensitive to nicotine as an adult. Therefore, death can occur if a teenager simultaneously smokes half a pack of cigarettes, for the whole pack contains just one fatal dose of nicotine. It is true that the rapid absorption of tobacco smoke, as a rule, comes a sense of disgust, nausea, and this leads to a cessation of smoking. But nevertheless there are cases of death from smoking two or three cigarettes: death comes as a result of a reflex stopping of heart and respiratory organs work (due to the toxic "blow" to the corresponding nerve centers).
In what does nicotine poisoning manifest itself? This salivation, nausea, pale skin, weakness, dizziness, sleepiness. In addition, feelings of fear, headaches, tinnitus, rapid pulse and other disorders of body activity.
Nicotine affects the transmission of impulses from the nerve to the muscle. Large doses of nicotine act similarly to the well-known poison, curare, which paralyzes the muscular system. But it is the adrenal glands that are most affected by nicotine. These paired hormonal organs of our body are responsible for many very important functions. It is the adrenal glands that release into the blood such potent life support agents as adrenaline and noradrenaline (catecholamines). They are transported by the blood to different parts of the body and affect the nervous apparatus of the internal organs. In other words, they are not local, but general regulators of the nervous system. Nicotine in small doses enhances, in large - reduces the release of catecholamines. As a result, for example, small doses of nicotine lead to an increase in blood pressure, and large - to suppression of the cardiovascular system. This explains the sharp drop in vascular pressure in acute nicotine poisoning, which leads to dizziness, unconsciousness and even death.
Harmful Effects of Tobacco
The destructive effect on the body is first initiated by heat. To introduce smoke from the mouth and nasopharynx into the lungs, the smoker automatically and imperceptibly inhales a portion of air by slightly opening the mouth. The temperature of the air entering the mouth is usually 40ยบC below the temperature of the smoke. These large temperature differences are reflected in the condition of the tooth enamel. Over time, it develops microscopic cracks, a "gateway" for microorganisms. This can cause damage to a smoker's teeth.
Tooth enamel disorder contributes to the deposition of tobacco tar on the surface of the teeth, resulting in a yellowish color, and the mouth begins to emit a specific smell, which can be felt when talking to smokers. The temperature of smoke affects the mucous membranes of the mouth and nasopharynx. Their capillaries dilate, the mucosa becomes irritated and inflamed. The heat of tobacco smoke and chemicals in it (ammonia, acids, etc.) irritates the salivary glands. This causes an increased production of saliva which smokers are forced to spit. Some of the saliva is swallowed. Poisonous substances of smoke (aniline, hydrogen sulphide, etc.), passing into saliva, act on the mucous membrane of the stomach, which does not remain unaffected. Loss of appetite, stomach pains, alternating constipation and diarrhea, chronic gastritis and, finally, stomach and duodenal ulcers are the disorders that start in smokers many times more often than in nonsmokers.
The mucous membranes of the larynx, trachea, bronchi, their smallest branches - bronchioles and, finally, lung vesicles - alveoli - are also exposed to tobacco smoke. The constituents of tobacco smoke (ammonia, acids, pyridine bases, solid particles, etc.) irritate the mucous membranes of the lungs.
Not without reason a smoker at the first attempt to inhale smoke gets a cough - reflexive jerky exhalations with which the body seeks to remove a foreign body (smoke) got into the airways.
Persistent smoking is usually accompanied by bronchitis, which is manifested by coughing after waking up and coughing up grayish, dirty-brown sputum. Chronic irritation of the mucous membrane of the vocal cords affects the timbre of the voice. He loses soundness and purity, which is especially noticeable for women who abuse tobacco. Even more clearly characterizes the complexion.
As a result of smoke intake the blood of alveolar capillaries, instead of being enriched with oxygen, is saturated with carbon monoxide, which combines with hemoglobin to form the so-called carboxyhemoglobin, as a result of which some hemoglobin is excluded from the normal respiration of the body.
The action of hydrocyanic acid is insidious. Penetrating into the blood, it reduces the ability of cells to absorb oxygen from the incoming blood. Oxygen starvation sets in. And since the nerve cells need oxygen more than anyone else, they are the first to suffer the effects of hydrocyanic acid. At a high dose of hydrocyanic acid after the strongest excitement of the central nervous system comes its paralysis, stops breathing, and then stops the heart.
Of course, the hydrocyanic acid content in cigarette smoke is extremely low: in the daily "diet" of the average smoker it is 40 less than the lethal dose, nevertheless chronic poisoning of the nervous system with this poison certainly affects its work.
So, each puff of cigarette smoke disturbs oxygen uptake by the body and thus the normal course of one of the most important physiological processes - breathing, without which life is impossible.
Other components of cigarette smoke, such as ammonia, are also important. This gas dissolves readily in water to form an alkaline, reactive solution known as ammonia. With its alkaline properties, ammonia alcohol irritates the mucous membranes, causing fever-free bronchitis in smokers. As a result, the resistance of the lungs to various infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis, is significantly reduced.
Tobacco tar, being a concentrate of liquid (organic acids, essential oils, aniline, etc.) and solid (carbon particles, carcinogens, polonium) substances, settles on the walls of the airways, accumulates in the alveoli. Part of the tobacco tar is excreted during coughing with sputum, and part penetrates into the tissues of the mucous membranes, giving them a dark color.
Passive smoking
Passive smoking is a condition where non-smokers are forced to breathe tobacco smoke from smokers. The smoker not only harms his or her own health, but also the health of those around him or her. We are constantly faced with this on the streets and indoors, in restaurants, nightclubs, cars, trains, etc. And who hasn't seen a young father carrying a baby stroller or even carrying a baby in his arms, with a smoking cigarette in his teeth. Of course, in this case, the child "gets high" with the father, who thoughtlessly poisons the baby's body.
Smoking sometimes creates such levels of carbon monoxide (II) in the ambient air that exceeds the permissible concentrations of it in industrial workplaces. Non-smokers can have asthma attacks, develop allergies, and exacerbate coronary heart disease due to being smoked by smokers. Children of parents who smoke are more susceptible to respiratory diseases than children of non-smokers. In particular, the frequency of bronchitis and pneumonia doubles in such children.
Polonium, radioactive lead and bismuth in tobacco smoke are dangerous not only to those who smoke, but also to everyone who breathes this smoke, especially children. Disorders of sleep and appetite, stomach and intestinal disorders, increased irritability, poor academic performance and retardation in physical development - this is a list of phenomena caused by cigarettes.
Mass smoking contributes to the emergence, development and deterioration of a number of diseases in almost one-third of the world's population and reduces the average life expectancy of humans. "As much as I have, it's all mine," many people say in their excuse, not realizing the seriousness of their problem.
With mass distribution, smoking becomes a socially dangerous phenomenon. After all, smokers poison the atmosphere, increase the concentration of carcinogenic substances in the air, lead to an increase in fires at home, at work, in the woods. Non-smokers are forced to breathe poisoned air. But perhaps the main risk factor is psychological. Many people, looking at those around them, obeying the "herd instinct", start smoking. When a smoker joins a smoking group, he pulls out a cigarette and smokes "for the company".
Headaches, dizziness, palpitations, and exhaustion are common complaints of non-smokers who have to spend long periods of time in smoky rooms.
Therefore, decisive and effective measures against smoking in public places are necessary.
Restricting smoking areas and strictly enforcing the rules have two positive effects. Firstly, thanks to such bans the danger of "passive smoking" by non-smokers is significantly reduced. Secondly, creating "inconveniences" for smokers undoubtedly reduces the influx of "newcomers" to the army of smokers and creates the preconditions for the cessation of smoking for those who still smoke and can not give up the bad habit in any way.
Tobacco also harms sports activities. Consumption of cigarettes inevitably reduces the strength, speed, endurance. Under the influence of tobacco affects the speed and clarity of the reaction. The survey showed that the absolute majority of our sportsmen never smoked. The real threat of defeat disciplines the will of true athletes and prevents them from smoking and drinking alcohol.
Reducing Tobacco Use
To reduce tobacco use, it is necessary to normalize the intake of nicotinic acid in the body through food or vitamin preparations, and then proceed to eliminate the bad habit. Then the body can move painlessly from one source of nicotinic acid to other, more familiar to him.
What do you need to do to smoke less, and in the future to give up this habit completely?
Firstly, increase the consumption of food containing vitamin PP by reducing the consumption of food, where this vitamin is not contained or is present in trace amounts. In the morning, instead of coffee, drink tea with honey or jam. For breakfast, eat oat, millet, buckwheat porridge with milk, drink a glass of carrot or apple juice. For lunch, eat salad, borscht, rassolnik, meat with mashed potatoes, drink compote or kissel. For the first dinner, eat fish with mashed potatoes, salad with fresh tomatoes or cucumbers. For the second dinner, one hour before going to bed, drink a cup of tea with honey, jam, or eat an apple, orange, apricots or drink a glass of juice.
Additionally for the period of reducing the number of smoked cigarettes or when you give up smoking completely, you can use additionally vitamin complexes containing vitamin PP or chewing gum with vitamin PP. Remember that this habit of smoking tobacco has been formed in your body for a long time. It is used to it. And in order for your body to exist painlessly without such an intake of vitamin PP you must introduce this vitamin through other sources.
Thus, only on the basis of biochemical processes occurring in the human body it is possible to study objectively the metabolic disturbances occurring in tobacco addiction. My approaches to the consideration of this addiction as a scientist-biochemist from a scientific point of view are objective and reliable.
So many people are interested in an objective understanding of this problem. After all, in order to fight this addiction, you need to know how it is formed in the human body.
Tobacco use among youth
The global scale of tobacco problem became the reason that WHO speaks about it as an epidemic, and since 1950s it has been actively working in the field of tobacco smoking prevention. The most important target audience for such programs are adolescents and young people, since it is known that nicotine addiction develops mostly in youth.
The prevalence of smoking among young people in Russia can be judged by the results of a small number of Russian studies. Thus, a survey of high-school students in 22 major Russian cities in 1991-1992 showed that every third and every fifth-grade student between the ages of 15 and 17 years old regularly smokes. Over the past several years the trend of girls becoming more and more involved in smoking has become noticeable. It was determined that the predominant motive for regular smoking in high school among both boys and girls is nicotine addiction, which has already been formed to some degree.
The intensity of initiation of smoking among boys and girls is different: if the bulk of boys join smoking at the age of 14 inclusive, the girls, on the contrary, the peak of initiation at age 13-14 just begins, and it happens in a much shorter period of time compared to the boys. Anyway the addiction to nicotine is formed rather quickly: the probability of its development after the first attempts to smoke at a young age is equal to 1:3.
Similar situation in the U.S., where since the early 1990's constantly increasing rate of smoking among young people led to the fact that in 1997, two influential organizations - American Medical Association and the Food and Drug Administration called smoking "disease of the young".
Anti-smoking education programs in Europe and the United States have been incorporated into public school curricula and have gained significant political support. Despite the growing popularity of these programs, their effectiveness has been extremely low. While some studies have documented positive short-term effects such as negative attitudes toward smoking, awareness of its health dangers, and a sense of concern on the part of adults, long-term effects have been much less encouraging. The onset of tobacco use was delayed, but tobacco use among youth did not decrease. Moreover, contrary to the increase in the number of various health programs, there is an increasing trend of smoking among youth in the United States and Europe.
As some authors have concluded, the popularity of these programs has increased because of the opportunities they provide to enhance the status of their organizers, rather than their ability to influence actual adolescent behavior.
One obvious limitation of these programs has been their one-sided view of smoking that reflects the values of the affluent middle class. These programs are based on the assumption that smokers have complete autonomy, time and access to the resources of culturally affirming, "healthy" adult middle-class lifestyles. These basic assumptions are incomparable with the life experiences and day-to-day realities of many youth subcultures, and especially with the life experiences of teenagers in the risk group. Thus the most active part of smokers is immediately excluded from the scope of such programs.
The tobacco-smoking concept around which the programs are built does not take into account the multifaceted phenomenon of smoking addiction and underestimates a number of important factors, such as a variety of external influences (peer pressure, family influence, social deprivation, active tobacco advertising), internal causes (low self-esteem, poor academic performance, stress and tension, etc.), and a number of psychological factors. etc.) and a range of psychological benefits that smoking provides - i.e. the value system that serves as the basis for rationalizing the smoking habit (the opportunity to look and feel grown-up, confident, fashionable, the opportunity to demonstrate their belonging to a reference group, easily establish social connections).
Simplified understanding of the mechanisms of smoking initiation and reasons for its continuation, embedded in school anti-tobacco programs, leads to an implicit moralistic attitude towards smokers as people, pathologically dependent on the chemical substance, in need of "treatment" or "correction" of their "wrong", "sick" behavior.
The formed image of the smoker as a person incapable of self-discipline even in the face of possible harm to health can make teenagers feel their own moral superiority over those who are afraid of the dangers associated with smoking.
"Moral depravity", which is associated with smoking, serves as one of the powerful factors of the attractiveness of smoking in the eyes of young people, symbolizing the rebellion against the conservative values of adults and the exit from the state of "childlike purity". It is known that often the decision to start smoking occurs not from ignorance of the possible harm to health, but as a manifestation of their own independence and conscious choice of risk. It can be said that "...they smoke in spite of the existing health risk, and even for the sake of this risk". Smoking becomes one of the types of activities for young people, allowing them to "declare themselves", to construct their personal and social identity.
Programs which deliver such stereotyped, emasculated notions about the essence of tobacco smoking, as well as alternatives which are unacceptable for many smokers, are not able to solve the set task on changing the behavior of teenagers. Attention to chemical aspects of addiction and possible "pathology" of personality of smokers at the expense of recognition of importance of social context of smoking generates resistance and misunderstanding from those who initially had ideas that are dissonant with those imposed by the program. Only small percent of the participants of the program, knowingly possessing similar attitudes concerning tobacco smoking and ready to assimilate the proposed system of meanings, to designate the substance as "bad", smoking as "illness", "bad habit" and active participation in the program as an opportunity to cure, tend to reduce consumption or to give up smoking.
As the world practice shows, the possibility of effective prevention of tobacco smoking among young people lies in the realization of the multidimensional nature of this problem; in the understanding that even if on the state level tobacco smoking is discussed mainly within the clinical or moral discourse, it is highly functional in people's everyday life, firmly connected to many other aspects of the social experience of individuals. For this reason, confronting the problem of youth tobacco use requires knowledge of cultural norms and values, social rituals, and social sanctions that affect tobacco use - that is, the subcultural and broader sociocultural context in which some adolescents become addicted to tobacco use. Such understanding is possible if there is not an indifferent but tolerant attitude to this social problem and responsible approach to its solution.
Smoking and women
Smoking causes more serious respiratory disorders in women than in men. This trend was revealed by Norwegian doctors from the National Institute of Health, which analyzed the data on the health of 65 thousand people of the weaker sex. The medics from Oslo, in particular, found that women who smoke are more prone to asthma.
And only three percent of women, according to scientists, are not complexed about their appearance. The main problem most ladies consider their figure, and in the figure - their hips and waist, which do not coincide with the "Hollywood standard". The pursuit of this standard leads many of the fair sex to other problems: up to 40 percent of those surveyed because of a morbid addiction to diets and other mockery of themselves, a lot of damage to their health.
Smoking is especially harmful for girls. The trouble is that not yet formed body nicotine causes even greater harm than the body of an adult, and this is especially true for girls. If a girl starts smoking between the ages of 12 and 14, puberty is disturbed. Menstruation is interrupted or delayed.
Not only that - the girl poisons her future children. If you open up the chest of a deceased smoker, the delicate pink lungs will be the color of soot and will collapse at the first touch like burnt tissue paper. Dirt and pus accumulate in the bronchi and lung tissues when you smoke. There is no reverse process - pus and dirt keep accumulating and accumulating.
With a smoking father, the child receives a dose of nicotine equal to 30 cigarettes per year, with a smoking mother - 50 cigarettes, smoking parents - 80 cigarettes.
The most important problem is the effect of smoking on the health of pregnant women and children. Around the world in recent decades conducted numerous studies that have developed and deepened the notion of the harmful effects of smoking on pregnancy, on the body of the mother and child.
In the extensive study of British scientists (I. Howe et al.) convincingly shows that the ability of women to procreate decreases as the number of cigarettes she smokes per day increases.
The list of various disorders occurring in pregnant pregnant mothers who smoke, and developing children, is very impressive: here and underweight babies, their high mortality, often a premature fetus, a variety of complications of pregnancy and spontaneous abortion. Children suffer from both congenital disorders and remote - after childbirth.
It is known that the mother, fetus and placenta are an organic unity, and this is reflected in various kinds of disorders developing during pregnancy in smoking mothers.
Complications of pregnancy observed in smoking women are divided into complications in the body of the mother, in the body of the fetus and fetus, on the part of the placenta, in the body of newborns and children of older age.
Scientists attribute the increased rate of spontaneous abortions, childbirth mortality, and subsequent retardation of newborn development in smoking mothers either to premature separation of the placenta and large placental infarcts, or to fetal oxygen deficiency (hypoxia).
The fetus developing in the body of a smoking mother lacks oxygen. Fetal oxygen deficiency is caused by carbon monoxide, which freely penetrates through the mother's placenta and into the fetal blood, binds hemoglobin and, forming carboxyhemoglobin, blocks breathing, poisoning the baby's body.
It is estimated that smoking even 4 cigarettes a day poses a serious risk of premature birth. This danger doubles when you smoke five to ten cigarettes a day.
A statistically significant association between maternal smoking and spontaneous abortions has been determined. The frequency of spontaneous abortions is significantly correlated to the number of cigarettes smoked, and the risk is 30-70% higher among pregnant smokers than among nonsmokers.
Smoking during pregnancy often results in delayed fetal growth and impaired adaptation to environmental conditions.
Babies born to women who smoke during pregnancy weigh on average 200 grams less than babies born to nonsmokers. Numerous studies of some 500,000 births have confirmed this fact.
Children born to mothers who smoke are not only physically, but also intellectually and emotionally stunted.
Works of pediatricians from different countries state the fact of extreme sensitivity of newborns to tobacco smoking, even if the smoking father smokes on the threshold of the apartment, where the newborn is. It is an interesting fact that newborns who cannot tolerate tobacco smoke gradually become accustomed to it by the third month of life and no longer demonstrate their intolerance. Some suggest that these children are the candidates for early smoking initiation.
Children of mothers who smoke are more likely to be treated in hospitals, particularly for bronchitis and pneumonia.
There is a link between maternal smoking and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. The latter have been found to have changes in the electroencephalogram, deviations from normal behavior, all of which appear to be very serious.
There is a strong correlation between cigarette smoking by mothers and severe congenital abnormalities in their children. Smoking women are more likely than non-smokers to have children with heart and nasopharyngeal malformations, inguinal hernia, and strabismus.
Smoking adversely affects the process of laying and development of the neural tube in the fetus, leading to the birth of children encephalic (without a head), babies with congenital mental development disorders, cleft palate and hare's lip.
There is a direct link between maternal smoking during pregnancy and the frequency of so-called sudden infant death syndrome. Sudden infant death syndrome during pregnancy is 12% more common, and after birth, 22% more common in mothers who smoke compared to nonsmokers.
Cigarette and tobacco use in general should be strictly forbidden for pregnant women and their husbands should also be strongly advised to stop smoking.
Smoking Cessation
Quitting smoking has immediate and long-term benefits. It is never too late to stop smoking. It has even been shown that patients with lung cancer have better treatment outcomes when they quit smoking than those who continue to smoke.
Long-term benefits:
- Improved health outcomes.
- Reduced signs and symptoms of respiratory disease.
- Increased life expectancy.
- Reduced risk of developing smoking-related diseases.
- Reduced risk of low birth weight for women who stop smoking in the first 3 months of pregnancy.
Withdrawal symptoms include irritability, anger, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, anxiety, restlessness, dysphonia, decreased heart rate, decreased general well-being, craving to smoke, and headaches.
Motivation to quit smoking varies considerably among countries and regions due to different social and cultural environments.
In Europe, interest in quitting varies from 80% of smokers in Sweden to less than 40% in Italy.
Although many smokers want to quit the habit, at the end of the day only 12% of smokers in Europe and 8% of smokers in the United States want to quit in the next 30 days.
If a smoker is ready to quit, they can be helped with therapy.
In addition, reducing the intensity of smoking (also called harm reduction) is another alternative for smokers who are not ready or able to quit completely.
The odds of success in stopping smoking are 1 in 20. However, if the most effective treatment is prescribed, it can increase to 1 in 4.
Therapy is based on the use of medications, such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and behavioral approaches.
A smoker can quit their habit without help, but it is much more difficult and achieving lasting withdrawal is more likely when quitting smoking with medical help.
Conclusion
No matter how terrifying the health and life consequences of smoking and no matter how scientifically proven the harms of tobacco are, people will not quit smoking until they clearly feel the manifestations on themselves. Human psychology is oriented to the principle "my house is on the edge". Then the willpower and the possibilities of the organism may not be enough to give up smoking completely. However, everyone decides for himself how to live in this world, with a cigarette in his teeth or not, with one condition - his decision should not affect others. And this, as we have already shown above, is virtually impossible. The impact of tobacco smoke on others is too great to ignore, too tangible material and moral losses of families of smokers, and most importantly - the smoker and smokers give tobacco hostage the health of their future children. This is why all-round restriction and prohibition of smoking among children and youth is so necessary.
