By Salome Akpan

Health Hazards of Smoking Tobacco

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. It is not only the absence of disease.​ A person is said to be healthy when he or she is free of any type of disease (infectious or deficiency), when he or she is mentally happy and healthy, and when his or her social relationships are healthy in society.

Hence, to have a healthy life one has to be physically, mentally, and socially complete.

So what is considered a healthy lifestyle?

A healthy lifestyle isn’t just about eating nutritious foods. It’s also about being physically active, balancing your work and social life, getting enough sleep, and focusing on your mental health. It can be overwhelming to do it all, but it is for one’s good.

One of the things that deteriorate people’s health is smoking tobacco.

What is smoking?

smoking, the act of inhaling and exhaling the fumes of burning plant material. A variety of plant materials are smoked, including marijuana and hashish, but the act is most commonly associated with tobacco as smoked in a cigarette, cigar, or pipe.

People smoke or are addicted to smoking because of nicotine. Nicotine is the main addictive substance in cigarettes and other forms of tobacco. Nicotine is a drug that affects many parts of your body, including your brain. Over time, your body and brain get used to having nicotine in them. About 80–90% of people who smoke regularly are addicted to nicotine.

TYPES OF SMOKING

Smoking is of different types, and it varies from each other distinctively, they included;

– CIGARETTES

Cigarettes are the most common and easiest way of consuming tobacco, especially among younger people. A young person starts by trying to experiment with a cigarette either for fun and then finds themselves addicted to it as a result of the nicotine that is in the cigarette, which is then hard to give up.

There are several types of cigarettes that may come in different ways, shapes and forms, but they all harm in the same way. Every day,  tobacco companies try to come up with something new to attract more people to succumb to the addiction while they make billions of dollars in profits.

There are filtered cigarettes and others with low levels of nicotine, as well as rolled cigarettes either on white paper or brown paper (tobacco paper). They come with regular tastes while others are sweetened with several flavors.

The harmful effects of smoking cigarettes are many. Seemingly, every day something new is discovered that can damage a person’s health, their families’ health, and that of their community. Cigarettes are harmful to many parts of the body including the skin, the mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, lungs, heart, arteries, bladder, breasts, and the cervix, in women, as well as the brain and nervous system. All are prone to diseases and ailments caused by smoking, most of which are cancer, heart disease, and lung disease.

–CIGARS OR PIPES

Contrary to popular opinion, smoking cigars or pipes is no less harmful to health than smoking cigarettes.

The truth is that one cigar on average has more nicotine and tar than a pack of cigarettes and one large-size cigar has 40 times the nicotine and tar found in one cigarette.

The concentrated toxic substances and carcinogens in cigars mean that regular cigar smoking is harmful, even in a  small amount.  Also, the number of people who die from mouth, throat, or esophagus cancers due to cigar smoking is ten times higher than those who do not smoke.

ALSO READ: How to promote healthy relationships

–SHlSHAS

Shisha or hookah is commonly thought to be less harmful than cigarettes, but the truth is that one shisha is equivalent to 50 to 60 cigarettes, and a two-hour to three-hour session of smoking shisha is equivalent to smoking 25 cigarettes.

There are several types of shisha that differ in shape and content, but their harmful effects are the same. One type is molasses tobacco, another is jrak which is tobacco added to a group of rotten fruits, and the sweetened shisha which contains tobacco and special kinds of fruits like apricot. All of these contain fermented material.

Smoking shisha is a leading cause of lip, mouth, and throat cancer. It also leads to lung, esophagus, stomach, and bladder cancer.  Smoking shisha can also be responsible for the spread of tuberculosis microbes that cause tuberculosis and help spread it between smokers who share the same shisha pipe.

This can also spread to non-smokers who come in contact with smokers. Shisha is also a minimal source of air pollution as they spread smoke and toxic gasses like carbon monoxide and are contaminated with pesticides, heavy metals, and mycotoxins.​

–CHEWING TOBACCO IN THE MOUTH:

Chewed and smoke-free tobacco is consumed through the mouth; it is smoking without the smoke. The person chews the tobacco – mixed with other ingredients – in their mouth for a sustained period of time and the juice from the tobacco is absorbed into the bloodstream and hence to the rest of the body. The effects on the body are much the same as smoking. The user can also store it in the mouth cavity without chewing for the same result.

This way of consuming tobacco is no less dangerous than smoking. Continuous use will expose the interior membranes of the mouth and throat to the harmful effects of tobacco with the potential to develop mouth and throat cancer. Chewing tobacco also increases the chances of increased blood pressure, heart disease, and peptic ulcers.

EFFECTS OF SMOKING ON THE BODY

Tobacco use harms every organ in your body. Smoking tobacco introduces not only nicotine but also other chemicals, including numerous carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals), into your lungs, blood, and organs.

The damage caused by smoking can shorten your lifespan significantly. In fact, smoking is the number one cause of premature death among people, especially younger ones.

Pregnant women who smoke put their unborn babies at risk, too. Possible effects on pregnancy include:

–Ectopic pregnancy, is a life-threatening condition when the embryo implants outside the uterus.

–Miscarriages.

–Stillbirths.

–Birth defects, such as cleft palates.

–Low birth weight