“Tobacco is harmful to health.” A warning found on cigarette packets and seen by all smokers but never really heeded.
The fact that cigarettes are dangerous is well known by many.
However what many do not know is that there are 4000 (four thousand) chemicals in one cigarette and out of these over 50 are cancer causing.
The fact that cigarette companies indicate warnings on their packets about the health risk of tobacco is not by chance.
It is also not enough.
The fact that these ingredients are rarely put on cigarette packets is rather questionable so perhaps it would be helpful to at least mention the toxins one inhales every time they smoke.
The chemicals range from not only carcinogens which are substances that can cause or aggravate cancer but also toxic metals, Radioactive Toxic Metals and substances which are classified as poisons.
Included on this list are Tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (TSNAs) known to be some of the most potent carcinogens present in smokeless tobacco, snuff and tobacco smoke.
TSNAs consist of four chemical compounds: N-nitrosonornicotine (NNN) 4-methyl-N-nitrosamino-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) N-nitrosoanatabine (NAT) and N-nitrosoanabasine (NAB).
Two of these chemical compounds, NNN and NNK, have been classified as Group 1 carcinogens, big words big problems.
While TSNAs exist in low concentrations in green tobacco, it is the process of fermenting and curing tobacco that produces high levels of TSNAs in smokeless tobacco as well as tobacco smoke.
TSNAs are highly toxic and are linked to several cancers such as Lung cancer, Oral cancer, esophageal cancer, Liver cancer and pancreatic cancer.
There is also a growing concern that TSNAs may be associated with cervical cancer, because these carcinogens have been found in large quantities in the cervical mucus of women who smoke.
Benzene can be found in pesticides and gasoline. It is present in high levels in cigarette smoke and accounts for half of all human exposure to this hazardous chemical.
Pesticides are used on our lawns and gardens, and inhaled into our lungs via cigarette smoke.
Formaldehyde is a chemical used to preserve dead bodies, and is responsible for some of the nose, throat and eye irritation smokers experience when breathing in cigarette smoke.
Other equally harmful carcinogens include Polonium 210 a highly radioactive toxic metal and Vinyl chloride which is used to make pipes.
Another range of shocking chemicals in cigarettes are toxic heavy metals and metal compounds that have the potential to harm our health when absorbed or inhaled.
In very small amounts, some of these metals support life, but when taken in large amounts, can become toxic.
Arsenic which is commonly used in rat poisons finds its way into cigarette smoke through some of the pesticides that are used in tobacco farming.
Cadmium is a toxic heavy metal that is used in batteries. Smokers typically have twice as much cadmium in their bodies as nonsmokers.
Chromium which is used in steel manufacturing and Lead which was once used in paint production
And there are other metals, such as nickel, lead, cobalt and beryllium.
While you may be exposed to some of these metals through domestic items or food, inhaling them in tobacco smoke is worse, because they are easily absorbed by the lungs.
Cigarette smoke also carries an extra danger in form of radioactive toxic metals these are among others Lead-210 (Pb-210) and polonium-210 (Po-210).
Then there are those ingredients which are classified as poisons yet are added to that attractive looking cigarette.
Poison is defined as any substance that, when introduced to any living thing causes severe physical distress or death. Science has discovered approximately 200 poisonous gases in cigarette smoke.
Examples of these include Ammonia compounds commonly used in cleaning products and fertilizers and further used to boost the impact of nicotine in manufactured cigarettes.
Cigarette smoke contains high levels of carbon monoxide which even a school pupil will tell you is deadly. Domestically many deaths caused by choking due to charcoal or fire in homes are due to carbon monoxide.
This deadly gas is also present in car exhaust and is extremely lethal in very large amounts.
A shocking addition is Hydrogen cyanide a terrible poison which was used to kill people in the gas chambers by the Nazis in Germany during World War II.
Then there is the infamous Nicotine which is the addictive element in cigarettes and is also as a poison used in pesticides.
Other substances include acetaldehyde, which is also formed in your tissues when you drink alcohol – it is responsible for many nasty hangover symptoms and hydrazine, a very toxic chemical used mainly in rocket fuel.
Chemicals like hydrogen sulphide and pyridine irritate our airways while gases like sulphur dioxide also kill cilia which are the protective hairs in our lungs. This stops our lungs from being able to clear away other harmful chemicals.
Add Toluene a substance known to damage and interfere with the development of brain cells and you have a stick of death.
Individual chemicals in smoke can be even more dangerous but when mixed together they can interact with each other to increase the risk of cancer and other diseases even more.
Smoking increases the risk of cancer diseases such as lung cancer, mouth cancer, larynx (voice box), pharynx (upper throat), nose and sinuses, oesophagus (food pipe).
Other types are liver, pancreas, stomach, kidney, bladder, cervix and bowel cancers, as well as one type of ovarian cancer and some types of leukemia.
There is also some evidence that smoking could increase the risk of breast cancer.
Other non cancer problems heightened by smoking are Coronary artery diseases, heart attacks and strokes and impotence in men.
Women who smoke put their reproductive health at risk especially when they are pregnant.Infertility is one of the risks but if you are lucky and manage to conceive you could have a miscarriage, fetal growth retardation, low birth weight baby, stillbirth and even your baby dying in infancy.
The figures are scary one third of regular smokers will die prematurely due to the impact of smoking.
And smokers lose up to 20 to 25 years of their life expectancy.
Many people think that they are not at risk but sadly the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked and the period of time one spends as a smoker.
It has also been found that the younger one starts smoking the higher the risk of cancer and other related diseases.
The risk is not for smokers alone to bear as non smokers exposed to cigarette smoke have a 30 to 40 percent chance of getting these ailments.
Passive smokers get what is referred to as Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) which is equally hazardous and worsened by the lack of filters.
The symptoms which many people can attest to when they are near cigarette smoke are eye irritation, sore or dry throat, coughing and chest congestion.
Mary Chimba a non smoker complains that she experiences shortness of breath and asthmatic attacks after been exposed to smoke.
However long term exposure can lead to disease for passive smokers and the risk is greater in children whose immune systems are still not strong.
James Bata says that as a child his father used to smoke so he too became addicted to cigarettes.
“I have got lung cancer and worse off my wife has chest problems because of been around me a smoker for over 15 years.”
Mr Batas case is not unique many smokers find themselves in the wards battling illnesses which they could have prevented if they had heeded that warning.
“Tobacco is harmful to health.”
Article first published in The Times of Zambia on the 17 th of September 2012
The author is a reporter at Times of Zambia and a very active blogger on health issues. Please take time ton check out some of her aticles here http://arushapot.blogspot.co.uk/
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