We have long been accustomed to cigarette packages decorated with inscriptions and pictures about impotence, infertility, and cancer. It seems that no one believes in these horror stories anymore, they obviously exaggerate the danger, and besides, you can always quit smoking and your health will improve. Is smoking really so bad for the body and why?
Yes, cigarette smoke has a lot of really harmful substances, science has no doubt about that. Cigarette tobacco burns at 600°C, and about 4,000 chemicals are released in the smoke. Over the years, 70 of them have been recognized as carcinogens, that is, increasing the risk of cancer. Besides, half of Mendeleev's table can be found in tobacco smog: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, lead, and different organic poisons - acetaldehyde, benzene, styrene. And, of course, tobacco contains nicotine, which is addictive.
The risks are very real. A lot of people die from the effects of smoking, and statistics confirm this. According to various data, smoking causes about 7 million deaths (from various causes) each year (which is comparable to the population of some countries).
Studies say that more people die from smoking than from HIV, drugs, alcohol, car accidents and gunshot wounds combined. In our country, the leading cause of death is heart and vascular disease, the development of which is largely promoted by tobacco smoking. Every seventh person in the world now smokes (that's about one billion people).It is safe to say that smoking does increase the risk of cancer. Once in the lungs, the components of cigarette smoke damage airway cells and cause them to become malignant, and they also enter the bloodstream and spread to other organs. Smokers have a 25-fold increased risk of getting lung cancer. In other words, 70-80% of lung cancer cases are related to smoking. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Numerous studies have shown that smokers are more likely to develop malignant tumors of other organs as well:
larynx;
pharynx;
esophagus;
the kidneys;
cervix;
liver;
bladder;
pancreas;
stomach;
colon and rectum;
hematopoietic cells (myeloid leukemia).
And all of these risks persist even if you smoke cigars, a pipe, or use chewing and snuff. There is no safe way to use tobacco.
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