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Facts About Smoking

January 16th, 2012 Quit Smoking Today

Smoking is bad. It is also an expensive habit which can cost you thousands of dollars per year. Cigarettes are addicted because of the nicotine they contain and nicotine is a stimulant which keeps you awake. There are to many smokers claim that smoking helps them to relax, makes them feel calmer and release stress. The facts are different and usually negative aspects of the habit outweigh the positive.

What’s a Cigarette?
A small tube of paper filled with cut tobacco, usually with a filter at one end. It’s a way to describe a cigarette but there are
more, for example:
• A product designed to deliver an addictive drug.
• A chemical factory, which manufactures and distributes thousands of topics.

The description refers to what the cigarette contains and what
happens when it is used as the manufacturer intended, that is, when
smoker puts the filter end between his lips, fire in the second
end and pulls in the smoke.

The smoke consists of thousands of chemical substances. The exact number can not be specified (finding ever new) but a common figure is that these are more than 4 000. Many of the substances in the smoke is already in the tobacco plant, others are added when cigarettes were manufactured and many are formed when the cigarette burns. Then you can call it a chemical plant. The temperature inside the glow on cigarette is about 900°C when the smoker draws a puff and about 600°C degrees in between.

Many of the chemicals contained in smoke are in different ways harmful to the body. There are substances that can cause cancer or allergies, which can damage the heart and blood vessels or irritate skin, eyes and mucous membranes of the respiratory tract. Other substances are classified as toxic pollutants or contribute to acidification. Many of the substances in the smoke is used as chemicals in industry, but is there surrounded by the work environment. Tobacco smoke contains even substances that are prohibited in the workplace.

Tobacco

The most familiar substance in tobacco is nicotine, it also found
in the tobacco plant’s Latin name Nicotiana. Tobacco is a genus of the family potato plants by nearly 70 species. Many of them are grown as ornamentals, others used by the tobacco industry. Tobacco leaves are harvested either by hand as they mature or take the whole plant at once. Then the tobacco is hung up in the barns for drying, which takes place with or without injection of hot air. A less common method is drying by means of open fires in the barn so that even the smoke from the fire comes into contact with the leaves. Another method is sun drying. Cigarettes made from various mixtures of fine-cut tobacco. The composition varies between countries.

Cigarettes made from various mixtures of fine-cut tobacco. The composition varies between countries. In countries such as USA, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Japan’s so-called blend cigarettes seems common. They contain a mixture of primarily two tobacco, the warm air dried Virginia tobacco with 2.5 to 3 percent nicotine and the light air-cured Burley with 3.5-4 per cent nicotine. Often also includes a small amount of sun and air dried ‘oriental’ tobacco which is more flavorful but contains less than 2 percent nicotine.

In Canada, Finland and the UK are mainly manufactured cigarettes with the bright hot air cured Virginia and in France, North Africa and some Latin American countries dominate the dark air-dried tobacco. In many cigarettes there are not just tobacco leaves but also filler material consisting of tobacco stems and other parts of otherwise becomes waste. Higher proportion of filling gives a less dense cigarette with slightly lower levels of tar.

The content of various substances in tobacco smoke and thus affected by many different factors. Tobaccos in a cigarette are important for
including the levels of nicotine. Fertilisers with a lot of nitrates increases the nitrogen content of tobacco. Other agricultural chemicals such as insecticides, may be found in tobacco. The tobacco contains several radioactive substances that come from fertilizer. It also contains heavy metals that can come from fertilizers or from the earth where it is grown. The various additives used in cigarettes manufactured has also significance of the substances found in smoke.

Smoking in the short term, will increased heart rate and blood pressure, constriction of blood vessels and poor conditioning. In the longer term, smoking effects on many vital organs and can lead to:

lung diseases like asthma, pneumonia and coal

cardiovascular diseases as atherosclerosis, blood clotting, strokes and heart attacks

more than 20 cancer types, such as lung, bladder, esophagus, pancreas and bowel

periodontal disease.

Smoking can also reduce the possibility of having children, affect the immune system, increase the risk of rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, age, blindness, dementia and more.

Most metals are left after combustion in the ash, but some of them evaporate
or associated with the particles of tobacco smoke. Several of these metals are known as carcinogens. Many substances in the smoke is irritating to the respiratory tract, the skin and eyes. Some substances are absorbed directly through the skin. Since there are radioactive substances in tobacco that are also in the smoke which we are all constantly exposed.

It’s never too late to quit smoking! There is only one person can stop smoking – you yourself.