Smoking And Chewing Essay, Research Paper
Tobacco is a plant grown for its leaves that are smoked, chewed, or sniffed for a ton of effects like thinking your cool if you do but we all know your really not. It is an addictive substance because it has the chemical nicotine in it. People say that the tobacco plant is believed to have started in the Western Hemisphere. The leaves of the plant are then made for smoking, chewing, or sniffing. Nicotine is not the only chemical it contains over 4,000 other chemicals.
The Indians of Mexico and Peru used tobacco for the ceremonies, medical purposes and to help fight hunger pains during a drought. Columbus is credited with introducing tobacco into Europe, then after that tobacco use became widely accepted by the Portuguese, Spanish, French, British, and Scandinavians. Explorers and sailors who became dependent upon tobacco began planting the crop so they could have there own supply. The colonist introduced tobacco to the Americans in the early 1600’s, It became a major trading crop of the many colonies that were settled in the U.S.
Most of the health hazards would only talk about cigarette smoking not chewing tobacco. While the number of smokers in the United States has continually decreased over years, the number of smokeless tobacco users has increased a lot. Since the 1970’s a big increase in smokeless tobacco has been in teenagers from 17 to 19 years old.
There has been a lot more advertising on smokeless products because of that very fact. The bad thing is that people think that smokeless tobacco is safer, so they quit cigarette smoking and then begin to chew tobacco thinking that it is safer than cigarettes.
Although over 40 million people in the United States have quit smoking, about 50 million continue to smoke which is about 25% of the population in the U.S. Each year about 1.3 million Americans quit smoking, and two thirds of the current smokers say they have never tried to quit and probably will not. About 40% of those who have not tried to quit say they do not believe that the health risks of smoking will decrease their risks for disease.
Smokeless tobacco use is higher in the following: athletes, ranchers, fishermen, lumberjacks, and factory workers. Nicotine has both a stimulant and depressant effect on the body, nicotine also causes arousal as well as relaxation from stressful situations. The average tobacco use increases the heart rate 10 to 20 beats per minute which can lead to blood clotting and high blood pressure. Nicotine may also increase sweating, nausea, and diarrhea and nicotine can also make you have a sore throat.
The positive effects of nicotine are that it helps memory alertness, good reactions, good work performance, helps get rid of stress, and helps people in stressful events. People who use tobacco products depend on it to give them this help, which is bad because they become addicted before they know it.
Surgeon General has warned that smoking is a health hazard, this warning helped the U.S. Public Health Service and The American Cancer Society to show the dangers of smoking and tobacco, now cigarette packages were required to carry the warning ” maybe hazardous to health.” Later the warning was strengthened to read ” Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health?.
The reason cigarette smokers do not give up this harmful habit easily is because nicotine is a highly addictive substance, so you want it every few hours. Giving up cigarettes makes it hard because of the painful withdrawals and a craving that many people cannot overcome. Cigarettes and tobacco are the most common form of drug dependency, people discovered that nicotine is taken to the brain and the bloodstream within a few minutes of smoking, then it go?s away about a half-hour later, but then the craving returns. Scientists have long known that nicotine is deadly but don?t do much to prove it. In most people, nicotine gets to the blood, slowing down blood circulation to the skin and organs. Long term smokers tend to look much older than non-smokers because of capillaries on the skin, which stops tissue building nutrients to get absorbed, another thing is that cigarette smokers with high cholesterol have a higher chance of heart attacks than non-smokers.
Tobacco in the1800’s was usually chewed, snuffed, or smoked in cigars and pipes, until the invention of cigarette paper and machinery which changed all that, and soon tobacco users were puffing away on a nice factory rolled cigarette. This introduced new toxins in the cigarettes like tar. These toxins are from the combustion of paper that is wrapped around the tobacco, and chemicals in tobacco process.
The worst chemical inhaled from burning tobacco is benzopyrene a chemical also let out by car mufflers and factory smokestacks causing lung cancer, the leading killer among all of the cancers, lung cancer currently claims about 140,000 victims every year. The American Cancer Society says that 87% of lung cancer deaths are in people who smoke cigarettes. The chemicals absorbed into the blood are then turned into urine, and they can lead to the cause of cancer in the kidneys, glands, and bladder.
The last 10 years people have seen the dangers of smoking, like cancer, blood clots and some sicknesses. We have known for at least 30 years that smoking is a leading cause of cancer, we have also found out that second hand smoke can cause the same problems as firsthand smoke. The Surgeon General said that secondhand smoke could be as deadly for non-smokers.
It?s easy to see why tobacco smoke is so deadly, because it contains more than 4,000 chemicals like I told you earlier, but at least 45 of its ingredients are known to be cancer causing. What is really bad is that secondhand smoke contains greater amounts of certain carcinogens than firsthand smoke. It also contains greater amounts of nicotine and tar, both strong and addictive stuff. Everyone is affected by tobacco smoke, and we all should get good education to learn about the dangers of cigarette smoke. More people are deciding to quit smoking because of its bad effects on their health, so the tobacco companies must find new ways to market their products.
Studies show that most smokers start smoking as teens and if they don’t start then, they will probably never smoke. The tobacco companies know that, so they target the children through advertisements. They also target the women more because women are more likely to be influenced than men are. The third most targeted population are minority groups like black people or even certain kind religions. In the United States the minorities make-up 25% of the population, this is a lot of people with a lot of money to spend on tobacco products. Tobacco companies spend $700,000 an hour trying to convince people smoking is fun and exciting. These companies need to recruit 5,000 new smokers each day, because 1,000 smokers will die and about another 4,000 smokers quit each day.
There are a lot of different ways that these cigarette companies try to get you to buy it, such as using good looking models to make smoking look fun and sexy. They put ads in magazines and on billboards, they sponsor car races, rodeos, and a lot sporting events to make smoking look like winners. They use characters so young people will recognize their brands and they also try to use “free stuff” coupons so you can buy more cigarettes. With all this advertisement it is hard for people to stay away from all of it so The Federal Government along with state government have started their war with these tobacco companies. They are trying to educate students on the dangers of smoking, through health educators and programs such as the D.A.R.E. program that I went through in fifth grade. They have also used the same advertising techniques as tobacco companies, with their own anti-smoking campaign. Except they make smoking look terrible and show that to be a real winner you don’t need to smoke.
Medications that are nicotine substitutes, such as nicotine chewing gum may be used but it only works between 25%-40% of the time. There are also different methods such as quitting groups, acupuncture, or even cold turkey. Anyone of these methods can work with the mind set on quitting for good. The benefits of quitting are almost instant. Within 20 minutes blood pressure and pulse rate drop, body temperature increases to normal and within 8 hours, risk of a heart attack decreases. After about two days the nerves sense of smell and taste begin to return to normal. Between 2 weeks and 3 months of quitting, circulation of the blood improves and walking becomes easier. Lungs start working up to 30% better. These things will increase the longer that person doesn?t smoke.
It is good to see that many states have helped to protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke. More than 40 states and at least 480 counties have passed legislation to restrict smoking in public places which is good, because I would not want to go to a hotel if all the rooms were for smokers only. Most companies now have smoking policies that ban smoking in the workplace. We spend some 22 billion a year on medical care that has to do with smoking. Since 1986 smokeless tobacco commercials were banned from TV and radio. Later after that smokeless tobacco companies were required to have warning labels on them.
The government needs to put an end to tobacco companies from now on because it kills a ton of people that should be living today, the other thing is that cities and states need to ban smoking in all public places to keep those who do not smoke healthy. Most importantly parents and all adults need to show children that smoking is dangerous, by not smoking themselves. By everyone doing a little something to help this problem we can make our environment a much healthier place to live.
There are billions of dollars payed to health care programs, education, and drug prevention because of people who smoke and chew tobacco, if there were no cigarettes or tobacco we could use that money for something useful like better schools and communities. Tobacco is hurting everyone, because even if you do not smoke, all the tax payers pay by paying for people who are poor and cannot afford cigarettes be able to get them. It is time we all fight back for what is ours health.
The other thing is that smoking and chewing tobacco is not a cool thing. I know some people who smoke in high school and I think that they should get a life because it is so disgusting. They come to school smelling like a campfire and try to cover it up with cologne or some deodorant. You all know who they are and you probably have smelt them around school. So if your one of these people I am talking about try to quit for our sake and your own.
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