Tobacco smoking doesn't always occur in the form of smoking cigarettes. In fact the trend of smoking tobacco has been famous thousands of years before the birth of Christ, and it was not in the form of cigarettes that the people of that era smoked tobacco and used it as a social tool of pleasure. Even the taste of tobacco smoke was thought to be pleasurable in that era.
The early civilizations used smoking tubes and pipes rather than cigarettes for tobacco smoking and did so on spiritual and social occasions. Tobacco smoke was believed to have spiritual powers capable of conveying thoughts.
Tobacco Smoking And Cigarettes
Tobacco filled cigarettes first employed the used of plant wrappings and then later on in the seventeenth century, fine paper was used. Though the roots of smoking cigarettes or smoking tobacco in any form go deep in history, cigarette smoking at such a large scale is a characteristic of the twentieth century.
It was in the twentieth century that warnings and precautionary signs pertaining to the risks imposed by tobacco smoking started to appear on cigarette packs, but were of course disregarded and ignored by most as a result of indirect encouragement to smoke by those involved in the tobacco business.
Effects of Tobacco Smoking On Health
Tobacco smoking has been the most common focus of research pertaining to the effects of tobacco smoking on human health, as compared to other forms of tobacco consumption. Tobacco smoking is rendered to as one of the greatest cause of preventable death. The organs that are most affected by tobacco smoking are the lungs and the heart.
Following are a few complications that have been related to cigarette smoking or smoking of tobacco by any other means:
- hypertension
- vascular diseases
- emphysema
- stroke
- heart attack
- lung cancer
- mouth and larynx cancer
- heart diseases
- pancreatic cancer
- psychological and physical dependency on tobacco smoke
- asphyxiation of the fetus
- erectile dysfunction
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- bladder cancer
- stomach cancer
- breast cancer
- esophagus cancer
- liver cancer
- myeloid leukemia
- colorectal cancer
- cancer of the kidneys and the gall bladder
- hypercholestrimia
- decreased vitamin C and vitamin A
- blindness
- muscular degeneration
- osteoporosis
- decreased testosterone levels
- decreased estrogen levels
- adenocarcinoma
- chronic broncitis
The list of complications caused by tobacco smoke is only an overview of the effects cigarette smoke has on human health. More than 4000 chemical compounds are found in tobacco smoke, most of which are carcinogenic in nature.
Simply put, there are numerous harmful effects of tobacco smoking and it is the need of time to realize the gravity of the situation. The situation that tobacco smoking has blended into societies like a food product and despite all the warnings, the number of tobacco smokers keeps on multiplying.
Source:
Cancer.gov, "Lung Cancer" (Accessed June 9, 2010)
Junaid Ali - Junaid Ali got his start in the writing business as an academic writer in the freelance commerce. After realizing that the field was too ...
Join the Conversation