Tobacco: Killer in Disguise

Tobacco: its usage was once considered a social norm, but now it has been revealed as one of the most dangerous substances people regularly put into their bodies. First, we’ll look at the facts surrounding the usage of tobacco, and then we’ll delve into the short and long term consequences tobacco use can have on a person’s health.

As of 2014, it is estimated that roughly 40 million adults in the United States, or around 1 in 6 members of the population smoke on a regular basis. In addition, roughly half of all high school students have tried a tobacco product. While there has been a definitive decrease in the usage of cigarettes, there has been a worrying rise in the number of electronic cigarettes being used. All-in-all, that’s a huge number of people who use tobacco in this country alone; rates of smoking are almost double in many European nations.

It was determined that tobacco contains over 4,000 different chemicals. 60 of them being known carcinogens, or substances proven to cause cancer. In addition, tar and other chemical residues from cigarettes can linger in the air for hours, composing what is known as second and third-hand smoke. To cap it off, cigarettes when smoked contain a tar-like substance that can bypass the filter in a cigarette and enter the lungs. So, obviously, looking at the facts surrounding tobacco use, you can probably see how cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are dangerous. However, what are the effects of the dangers tobacco poses?

Tobacco has a multitude of effects both short-term and long-term. First, in terms of the short-term, tobacco leads to yellow marks on the teeth and fingers of smokers as a product of the tar it produces when burned, and gives the user “ash-tray” breath. These effects seem trivial to most, which is the reason most people continue to smoke. However, it’s the long-term effects of smoking that can be, quite literally, the killer.

Countless studies have shown tobacco use to directly cause coronary heart disease, or the buildup of plaque in arteries, significantly increase the chance of a having a stroke, and finally lead to the development of almost always terminal lung cancer in addition to countless other types of cancer. In addition, smokeless tobacco has been shown to cause mouth cancer, dark spots on the gums, and severe tooth damage. To add to this roster of negative health effects, tobacco of any sort has been proven to cause birth defects when pregnant women use it, and lead to constant coughing that accompanies the increased chance of various lung diseases that tobacco brings. With all of these things resulting from tobacco, it is no wonder that it is responsible for 1 in every 5 deaths in America.

While it may seem harmless at first, tobacco carries in its wake a huge amount of negative health effects, many of them leading to the death of the user. With such a cost, it is paramount that an effort is made to steer more people away from such a harmful activity.

Works Cited:

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/

https://www.verywell.com/tar-in-cigarettes-2824718

https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/