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February 27, 2010

Cigarette Smoking Statistics

Filed under: Stop Smoking — Tags: Cigarettes, Smoking, Statistics — admin @ 9:33 am

In the United States it is estimated that 25.9 million men, 23.9 percent of the male population, and 20.7 million women, 18.1 percent, smoke. In 1991 27 percent of Americans smoked, compared to the 29 percent in 1987 and the 44 percent in 1964, the percentages are going down. This is not because fewer people are starting, more are quitting, showing that preventative efforts are not successful. These people are 30-40 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death

The addiction to smoking gives a 50 percent chance of killing the user, which is three times riskier than playing Russian roulette. Another statistic shows that smoking is responsible for 25 percent of cancer deaths. Also smokers in their thirties and forties are five times more likely to have a heart attack as nonsmokers. Every eight seconds someone dies from cigarette use.

Statistics also show that ninety percent of smokers start as children and adolescents. Six thousand children start smoking every day, on average, two thousand will be regular smokers, giving us eight hundred thousand new smokers every year. An estimated four million teenagers are smokers, giving us an average of twenty eight percent of smoking high schoolers. Seventy percent have tried cigarettes. As early as the eighth grade statistics are showing that over five percent are smokers.

Psychiatric patients have the highest percentages of all smokers, thus proving that smoking is crazy. Statistics show that fifty percent of psychiatric outpatients are smokers. How about the ninety percent of schizophrenic smokers? Manic depressives, seventy percent. Alcoholics are another group that scores high in smokers, ninety percent.

One hundred percent of humans start out life as non-smokers. Statistics show that almost all quitters within twenty minutes the blood pressure lowers and the temperature of the hands and feet returns to normal. About eight hours after quitting the balance of carbon monoxide and oxygen has returned to normal. The risk of heart attack begins to decrease at twenty-four hours. Nerve endings regarding the sense of taste and smell begin growing back after just forty-eight hours. In two to three weeks, circulation improves, the lungs work better, making all forms of exercise easier. As early as one month but as long as nine, the cilia, tiny hair-like structures that clean the lungs and prevent infection, work normally again. After a year the risks of heart failure and disease have decreased by half. After ten years the risks of a smoker are nearly eliminated.

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October 14, 2009

Smoking Addiction

Filed under: Stop Smoking — Tags: Addiction, Cigarettes, Dependence, Habit, Smoking — admin @ 3:57 pm

Smoking addiction is an uncontrollable dependence on cigarettes to the point where stopping smoking would cause severe emotional, mental, or physical reactions. Research on why people smoke shows that smoking behavior is multifaceted. The factors that influence smoking initiation are different from those of smoking behavior. Nicotine dependence, genetic factors, and psychosocial factors influence smoking behavior. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug and also a potent psychoactive drug that induces a euphoric, reinforces its own use, and the user suffers from withdrawal syndromes when not in use. Nicotine possesses two very potent qualities, a stimulant, but also a depressant. This addiction affects the mood and performance of the user.

Why is nicotine so addicting? It enters the bloodstream, through the lungs and through the lining of the mouth. Although its effects are less dramatic than those of other addictive drugs, smoking doses of nicotine causes stimulation of the “pleasure centers” in the brain, which explains the pleasure and addictiveness of smoking. This is the reason why so many fail to stop, because they are addicted. This does not mean that you cannot stop, just expect that it is likely to be difficult.

Nicotine stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, stimulating the endocrine system. One needs to continually increase levels of nicotine in order to maintain the stimulation. In regards to dependence, experts rank nicotine ahead of alcohol, cocaine, and heroin. Nicotine alters the dopamine and serotonin in the brain. It causes increases in heart rate and blood pressure. Small rapid doses produce alertness and arousal. Long drawn-out doses induce relaxation and sedation. The addiction of nicotine has a pronounced effect on the major stress hormones.

Smoking addiction is classified as nicotine use disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The criteria for this can include, tolerance with decreased effect and need for increasing doses, withdrawals after quitting, smoking more than usual, persistent desire, postponing work or other events to have a smoke, and continuing to smoke despite health issues. Nicotine withdrawal symptoms include, difficulty concentrating, nervousness, headaches, weight gain, insomnia, irritability, and depression. These symptoms will gradually fade within a month.

Everyone knows that smoking is harmful and addictive, but few people realize just how risky and addictive it is. Chances are that about one in three smokers who do not stop will eventually die because of their smoking, on average, 10 to 15 years earlier than they would have died from other causes.

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November 19, 2008

Smoking Bans

Filed under: Stop Smoking — Tags: Bans, No Smoking, Smoking — admin @ 2:55 pm

Many states are adopting laws against public smoking. No smoking in any business, and usually at least twenty five feet from a door to a business. Cities are implementing bans on smoking in public parks and city beaches. Companies now have policies to hire only non-smokers, those that smoked before the ban cannot smell of smoke at work or on the premises. Amazingly most smokers understand and support these bans.

The rationale for these smoking bans is of course the protection from harmful effects of secondhand smoke to workers. Other rationales for smoking bans include reduced risk of fire, decreased legal liability, reduced energy costs due to decreased use of ventilation systems, promotion of healthier environments, and incentives for smokers to quit.

The United States is not alone in smoking bans. The first known smoking ban was in 1590 when Pope Urban VII threatened to excommunicate anyone who used tobacco on the porchway or inside a church. Surprisingly the first modern smoking ban was imposed by the Nazi party in Germany. People were banned from smoking in universities, post offices, hospitals, and the party offices. In the 1970’s most businesses were required to have no smoking sections which eventually led to the 1990 decision the city of San Luis Obispo California to ban all indoor smoking in public places. Ireland was the first country to establish a nationwide smoking ban in all enclosed workplaces. They are right now creating laws that make it so cigarettes are not visible in stores. Norway, New Zealand, Italy, Estonia, Scotland, and Sweden all soon followed suit. Many other countries have bans on smoking, some consider the act illegal.

Here in the United States, with the success and popularity of the smoking ban in California, other states began bans as well. Currently there are thirty five states with some form of a smoking ban. Smoking has been banned on the streets of Tokyo, other Japanese cities are following this trend. Laws in some California cities make it so that the only place one can smoke is in their own home. Many states are adopting laws banning smoking in public parks and recreation areas.

Cigarette advertising in also banned in many parts of the world. Tobacco sponsorship of sports events is also prohibited. Tobacco companies are experiencing an eleven to fifteen percent drop in the use of tobacco products. Many smokers quit within five years of a smoking ban at work. Studies are showing that there has not been a negative economical impact on businesses, in fact local businesses are showing improvements.

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November 17, 2008

Smoking Side Effects

Filed under: Stop Smoking — Tags: Side Effects, Smoking, Stop Smoking — admin @ 8:30 pm

Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Eighty seven percent of lung cancer deaths are cigarette related. The effects of smoking are also responsible for other various cancers throughout the body, such as throat, mouth, tongue, and skin. Other health problems include, but are not limited to, lung disease, heart and blood vessel disease, stroke, angina, arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, chronic bronchitis, high blood pressure, impotence, respiratory ailments, and cataracts.

Of the many effects smoking has, according to the American Heart Association, the greatest risk is coronary heart disease. The risk is 2-4 times greater in smokers than in non-smokers. Nicotine from tobacco smoke temporarily increases heart rate and blood pressure, less oxygen-rich blood circulates through the body due to the constriction of the blood vessels. Smoking also leads to stenosis, clumping in the blood vessels, of the heart. All the cardiovascular diseases caused from smoking usually result in heart failure.

Smoking is responsible for one third of cancer deaths in the United States. Countless studies have proved that smoking causes lung cancer, and substantially increases risk of cancer of the larynx, pharynx, oral cavity, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas and suggests a strong association with cancer of the cervix.

Emphysema, another common effect of smoking, is a lung disease involving damage to the alveoli (air sacs). The pollutants found in tobacco smoke damages these sacs. This damage worsens over time affecting the oxygen supply to the body. Symptoms include shortness of breath, chronic cough, fatigue, and wheezing. Other possible effects are respiratory infections, pulmonary hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries), anxiety, edema, and death.

COPD, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that makes breathing difficult, is a lung inflammation that destroys alveoli (air sacs). Fifteen to twenty percent of smokers will develop COPD. Symptoms usually include, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath that lasts for months or years, and wheezing.

Another way smoking effects the body is it lowers the body’s ability to heal. Studies show that smokers have a lower survival rate after surgery due to the damage of host defenses and reduced immune response. Smokers also have a greater risk of infection and postoperative pneumonia.

Of the more than four thousand harmful chemicals in tobacco, more than fifty are known to cause cancer. Not to mention the arsenic, cyanide, formaldehyde, and ammonia bromide, which is used in toilet cleaners are all included in each cigarette, each with their own effect on the body.

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