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Exercises
What
Most Smokers Don't Know
Bill
is a thirty-five-year-old father whose friends are concerned
about the large number of cigarettes he smokes each day. He
says he knows about the health hazards but would rather smoke
than live longer. Bill is tired of hearing nonsmokers complain
about having to share the air that he pollutes. His latest
answer to nonsmokers amuses him greatly. When someone complains
about the smoke in the air, Bill suggests that the person
thinks of him as a human filter.
"Cigarette smoke is a very complex material
containing extremely tiny particles that are breathed in by
the smoker so that they reach the farthest parts of the
lung,"
Bill says. "Each time I smoke, I breathe in about a million
particles for each cubic centimeter. Since only about 20 percent
of these particles are exhaled, 80 percent of them remain
in my lungs. So, you see, I am really a human filter."
This idea just reinforces the resolve of the
nonsmokers. They laugh at Bill. If they realized that the
particles from just two cigarettes an hour accumulate to an
amount greater than that considered safe by the Environmental
Protection Agency, however, they might protest even harder
to try to stop Bill from fouling the air they breathe.
Most smokers are vaguely aware of the health
hazards of smoking. Still, many indulge in a kind of magical
thinking in which they are certain that the things that happen
to other smokers will not happen to them. For example, more
than half of the young people who smoke believe that the dangers
of smoking are exaggerated for their age group. And many believe
that all of the health hazards associated with smoking happen
only to older people. These young people are unaware of the
many short-term effects of smoking.
Almost everyone knows that dirt goes into the lungs along
with the air one breathes. Particles are trapped by mucus,
a sticky material that is secreted by glands in the walls
of the air passage. Every healthy person's lungs contain short
hairlike bristles known as cilia, which sweep up and out,
pushing mucus, germs, and dirt away. Even one cigarette slows
down the cilia that work to sweep up the dirt and germs, and
heavy smoking destroys them completely.
If the cilia are not strong enough to sweep
away the accumulation of "garbage" in the lungs people cough
or sneeze to blast the foreign material out. Perhaps you have
noticed that people who smoke a lot also cough a lot—and
some of them don't even know why.
Since cilia that have been damaged can no
longer act like brooms to sweep germs, mucus, and dirt out
of the lungs, it is not surprising to find that smokers are
sick in bed eighty-eight million more days each year than
nonsmokers.
Of course, the longer you smoke the deadlier
are the effects. But it doesn't take years for smoking to
hurt you. Students in one class project were taught by the
school nurse to measure a
person's vital sign, before and after he smoked
just one cigarette. It was obvious to them from their research
that this small amount of smoking sped up the heartbeat, increased
blood pressure, decreased lung capacity, and caused a drop
in the skin temperature of fingers and toes.
Most smokers do not think much about why they
smoke. They are aware of the fact that nicotine affects the
central nervous system, producing pleasurable effects. Some
smokers know that nicotine increases the brain activity pattern
associated with relaxation and that in low doses it can stimulate
certain nerve cells that produce feelings of alertness. These
are some of the reasons people continue to smoke. Other reasons
include the association of smoking with pleasant activities
such as talking on the phone, relaxing after dinner coffee,
socializing, and just plain relaxing. But most smokers do
not know that tolerance begins with the first dose of nicotine.
This means that, up to a point, increased doses are needed
to produce the same effect. The nicotine provides a real "hit"
to the brain, producing immediate pleasure.
Consider the case of Jean who said that she
did not want to give up smoking because it gave her so much
pleasure. She believed she could stop when she chose to do
so, but the nurses who saw her light a cigarette when she
left the intensive care unit after her heart attack did not
agree. Jean is an intelligent, responsible adult, but she
still refuses to believe that smoking had anything to do with
her heart attack. Not all smokers become addicted to cigarettes
the way Jean is, but for those who are, quitting is very difficult.
Some smokers know that tobacco smoke yellows
teeth—especially if they are familiar with those radio and
TV ads for a tooth polish made especially to clean away the
stain on smokers' teeth. But many smokers do not realize how
unpleasant their breath and their clothing smell. Nonsmokers
who enter smokers' homes often notice that the odor has penetrated
the furnishings. More than one person has wondered why women
who smoke bother to buy expensive perfumes, since
the fragrances are overshadowed by the aroma of tobacco smoke.
But smokers tend to
be oblivious to the smelly side effects of their
habit because continued smoking often diminishes their sense
of smell—and their sense of taste, for that matter.
Many smokers who see No Smoking signs in their
dentists' offices think that the signs have been placed there
for the dentists' comfort. These people don't realize that
smoking delays the healing of mouth sores and contributes
to gum disease, a condition that often leads to tooth loss.
Carbon monoxide is seldom blamed for damage
to a smoker's health, even though it has an adverse effect
on people of all ages. This gas is now known to be one of
the most harmful ingredients in cigarette smoke. It literally
drives the oxygen out of the red blood cells. The level of
carbon monoxide in a smoker's blood is four times higher than
normal, and it can be as much as fifteen times higher in the
blood of heavy smokers.
While carbon monoxide is harmful to everyone,
it is especially damaging to people with heart or lung disease.
And a pregnant woman who smokes two packs of cigarettes a
day blocks off 40 percent of the oxygen to her unborn child.
Carbon monoxide is thought to be the most important factor
in causing spontaneous abortion, stillbirth, and reduced birth
weight in babies.
Smoking hazards for future parents are better
known for women than for men. However, some studies indicate
that men who smoke tobacco are more likely than nonsmokers
to produce abnormal sperm, and this can lead to infertility
or cause birth defects.
85 percent of all lung cancer cases in the
United States are caused by smoking. Cigarette
smoking has been established as a significant cause of cancer
of a great variety. In 1989, the government concluded
that half of all strokes in people under the age of sixty-five
stem from smoking. According to the U.S. Public Health Service,
cigarette smokers have a death rate from coronary heart disease
70 percent higher than that for nonsmokers. Smokers are 50
percent more likely to be hospitalized than nonsmokers.
Although the tobacco companies disagree with
many of the medical findings, researchers, physicians, and
public health workers from more than eighty countries have
made more than 50 000 studies on smoking and health. The great
majority of these studies conclude that cigarette smoking
either contributes to or is the primary cause of illness and
death in about two dozen serious diseases. In a federal report
on the health consequences of smoking, Dr. C. Everett Koop
said that cigarette smoking was responsible for one in six
preventable deaths in the United States.
Most people have noticed the warning labels
on cigarette ads and packages, but smokers do not seem to
pay much attention to them. You might find out what most smokers
do not know if you ask a smoker what the warnings say.
The following warnings are
rotated every three months:
Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease,
Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy.
Pregnant Women Who Smoke May Risk Fatal Injury
and Premature Birth.
Cigarette Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.
Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious
Health Risks.
Since the 1988 Surgeon General's Report that
emphasized the addictive nature of nicotine, the following
warning was suggested: Warning: Smoking is Addictive. Once
You Start You May Not Be Able To Stop.
The most important message is obvious: Don't
Start to Smoke.
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