How bad is smoking for our health?
The smoke components of tobacco and tobacco contain 69 carcinogens and 7,000 toxic and harmful substances, including the first group of carcinogens. These carcinogens increase the risk of respiratory cancer such as mouth, larynx, pharynx, esophagus and lungs, and are also related to various cancers such as stomach cancer, liver cancer, kidney and ureter cancer, bladder cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, and acute myeloid leukemia.
First of all, if you have shortness of breath and persistent cough and sputum symptoms, you can suspect respiratory diseases caused by smoking. The most common lung diseases caused by smoking are emphysema and chronic bronchitis, usually referred to as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
"If COPD patients are smokers, they should quit smoking first," said Eom Moon-young, a consultant at the Unpyeong Tower Medical Center. "It should be accepted as a lifelong disease that needs to be managed, not a complete cure."
Smoking can have a systemic effect on our bodies. When smoking, tar and carbon monoxide absorbed by our bodies cause long-term damage to the inner walls of the arteries, causing inflammatory reactions and forming sticky plaque in the arteries. Such plaque blocks blood vessels and causes cardiovascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis. In particular, smokers with other underlying diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, have a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular disease. Smoking can also be a risk factor for various gastrointestinal diseases and osteoporosis.
"Smoking is a really scary risk factor for stroke," said Lee Han-soon, director of the Hidak Neurology Clinic. "It usually takes eight years to get out of the risk of heart disease after quitting smoking, 12 years for stroke, and 20 years for lung cancer," he said, stressing that smoking should be stopped immediately. Smoking cessation reduces smoking deaths by up to 90 percent before the age of 40. Therefore, efforts should be strengthened to stop smoking when young.
Many smokers try to quit smoking, but the probability of quitting smoking on their own initiative is only 3-5% per year. Although it is difficult to succeed with one's own will, the success rate of smoking cessation increases by six times when correct information, advice on smoking cessation, and medical treatment are combined.
I think e-cigarettes are good. There is no good cigarette.
Some people smoke e-cigarettes for quitting smoking. Electronic cigarettes, which are known to be less harmful, are just another cigarette.
Tobacco companies advertise rolled e-cigarettes as a substitute for smoking less harmful than rolled cigarettes, but the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that rolled e-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional tobacco products. In fact, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety released a 2018 analysis on the harmfulness of rolled e-cigarettes, which showed that nicotine content was similar to that of rolled cigarettes, but that some products detected higher tar content than rolled cigarettes.
Tobacco threatens human health and causes serious environmental pollution throughout the process of cultivation, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. The World Health Organization said, "600 million trees will be cut down to make cigarettes and 22 billion liters of water will be consumed. The 84 million tons of CO2 emitted by smoking will cause a greenhouse effect, killing 8 million people every year." Cigarettes are a serious problem that threatens not only health but also the environment, so it is important to pay close attention.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
(Picture from Unsplash)
Comentários