Ill Effects Of Smoking

The effects of smoking are legion. Smoking is dangerous because it has effects on the respiratory system and cardiovascular system. One of the most dreaded effects of smoking is lung cancer. Unfortunately, the effects of smoking are seen not only among smokers, but also in the people around them.

Why is cigarette smoke dangerous?
Smoking is dangerous because smoke contains more than four thousand poisonous substances which cause various diseases, even death. Among these are cancer-producing substances, carbon monoxide, nicotine, and other irritating substances.


What diseases can result from cigarette smoking?
Smoking causes lung disease, heart and blood vessel disease, cancer, and other illness. One of four smokers dies of diseases directly related to smoking. Many others suffer years of pain, ill health, and discomfort.



How does smoking harm the lungs?
Tar and carbon monoxide irritate and damage the lining of the lungs when you breathe in air with cigarette smoke. This starts as a tickle in your throat, and later turns into smoker's cough. As this gets worse, you produce more and more phlegm. These warning signs are your body's way of trying to protect you from the smoke.
If you ignore your body's warnings and continue to smoke, you are likely to suffer more often from colds and flu, as well as bronchitis, pneumonia, and other more serious chest infections. Eventually, you could get emphysema, an irreversible condition when part of the lung is completely and permanently damaged. As the disease gets worse, you will have difficulty in breathing and may hardly be able to walk. Cigarette smoking is the most common cause of emphysema.


How does smoking cause heart and blood vessel disease?
Smoking is one of the major cause of heart disease. The nicotine in tobacco smoke raises your blood pressure by constricting your blood vessels and making your heart work faster. This makes your heart work harder. It needs oxygen to do this extra work. But cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas. Carbon monoxide cuts down the oxygen reaching your heart by up to 15 percent. Nicotine promotes fat build-up on the walls of your arteries, damaging them and decreasing blood flow, resulting in heart disease and heart attack. No wonder smoking doubles your risk of dying of a heart attack!
Smoking also causes direct injury to your artery walls and promotes fat build-up in them. You may experience circulation problems such as cold feet, occasional pins and needles, and numbness in the leg. At an advanced stage, the disease may result in gangrene, which could lead to the amputation of your legs. Nineteen out of twenty people suffering from this disabling disease are cigarette smokers.
When the arteries that are affected are those supplying your brain, a stroke may occur; those supplying the eyes, blindness; and those supplying the sex organ, impotence.



How is cigarette smoking related to cancer?
Cigarette smoking increases your risk of dying from lung cancer by 8 to 20 times. Nine out of ten people who die from lung cancer are smokers. Smoking increases the risk of developing cancer of the mouth, throat, and esophagus by two to twenty times. The risk of cancer also increases even in organs not directly exposed to tobacco smoke. These include the pancreas, kidneys, urinary bladder, and probably the cervix.



What other Ill effects does smoking cause?
Smoking makes you less healthy, less fit, and less likely to succeed in life. It makes breathing harder, causes wheezing, coughing, and headaches, and damages your sense of taste and smell. It causes premature wrinkling of the skin, bad breath, and it stains your teeth and fingernails.



Does smoking affect non-smokers?
Yes. For every person who smokes, there are two who do not. But the non-smoker still breathes in “sidestream” smoke from the burning cigarette tip and “mainstream” smoke that has been inhaled then exhaled by the smoker. This is called passive, involuntary, or second-hand smoke, which also exposes the non-smoker to the same dangers and discomforts that a smoker faces.
Non-smokers living with smokers have a 35% increased risk of getting lung cancer compared to non-smokers living with fellow non-smokers. Smokers' children are more likely to get bronchitis, pneumonia, and other chest infections, especially in their first year of life. Chronic cough and phlegm are also more frequent among children of parents who smoke. In the workplace, chronic exposure to tobacco smoke reduces airway function to the same degree as smoking one to ten cigarettes a day.

Hand Washing:

Hand washing is a simple habit that can help keep you healthy. Learn the benefits of good hand hygiene, when to wash your hands and how to clean them properly.

Hand washing is a simple habit, something most people do without thinking. Yet hand washing, when done properly, is one of the best ways to avoid getting sick. This simple habit requires only soap and warm water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer — a cleanser that doesn't require water. Do you know the benefits of good hand hygiene and when and how to wash your hands properly?

The dangers of not washing your hands

Despite the proven health benefits of hand washing, many people don't practice this habit as often as they should — even after using the toilet. Throughout the day you accumulate germs on your hands from a variety of sources, such as direct contact with people, contaminated surfaces, foods, even animals and animal waste. If you don't wash your hands frequently enough, you can infect yourself with these germs by touching your eyes, nose or mouth. And you can spread these germs to others by touching them or by touching surfaces that they also touch, such as doorknobs.

Infectious diseases that are commonly spread through hand-to-hand contact include the common cold, flu and several gastrointestinal disorders, such as infectious diarrhea. While most people will get over a cold, the flu can be much more serious. Some people with the flu, particularly older adults and people with chronic medical problems, can develop pneumonia. The combination of the flu and pneumonia, in fact, is the eighth-leading cause of death among Americans.

Inadequate hand hygiene also contributes to food-related illnesses, such as salmonella and E. coli infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many as 76 million Americans get a food-borne illness each year. Of these, about 5,000 die as a result of their illness. Others experience the annoying signs and symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Proper hand-washing techniques

Good hand-washing techniques include washing your hands with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Antimicrobial wipes or towelettes are just as effective as soap and water in cleaning your hands but aren't as good as alcohol-based sanitizers.

Antibacterial soaps have become increasingly popular in recent years. However, these soaps are no more effective at killing germs than is regular soap. Using antibacterial soaps may lead to the development of bacteria that are resistant to the products' antimicrobial agents — making it even harder to kill these germs in the future. In general, regular soap is fine. The combination of scrubbing your hands with soap — antibacterial or not — and rinsing them with water loosens and removes bacteria from your hands.

Proper hand washing with soap and water

Follow these instructions for washing with soap and water:

Wet your hands with warm, running water and apply liquid soap or use clean bar soap. Lather well.

Rub your hands vigorously together for at least 15 to 20 seconds.

Scrub all surfaces, including the backs of your hands, wrists, between your fingers and under your fingernails.

Rinse well.

Dry your hands with a clean or disposable towel.

Use a towel to turn off the faucet.

Proper use of an alcohol-based hand sanitizer

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers — which don't require water — are an excellent alternative to hand washing, particularly when soap and water aren't available. They're actually more effective than soap and water in killing bacteria and viruses that cause disease. Commercially prepared hand sanitizers contain ingredients that help prevent skin dryness. Using these products can result in less skin dryness and irritation than hand washing.

Not all hand sanitizers are created equal, though. Some "waterless" hand sanitizers don't contain alcohol. Use only the alcohol-based products. The CDC recommends choosing products that contain at least 60 percent alcohol.

To use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:

Apply about 1/2 teaspoon of the product to the palm of your hand.

Rub your hands together, covering all surfaces of your hands, until they're dry.

If your hands are visibly dirty, however, wash with soap and water, if available, rather than a sanitizer.

When should you wash your hands?

Although it's impossible to keep your bare hands germ-free, there are times when it's critical to wash your hands to limit the transfer of bacteria, viruses and other microbes.

Always wash your hands:

After using the toilet

After changing a diaper — wash the diaper-wearer's hands, too

After touching animals or animal waste

Before and after preparing food, especially before and immediately after handling raw meat, poultry or fish

Before eating

After blowing your nose

After coughing or sneezing into your hands

Before and after treating wounds or cuts

Before and after touching a sick or injured person

After handling garbage

Before inserting or removing contact lenses

When using public restrooms, such as those in airports, train stations, bus stations and restaurants