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Negative Effects of Tobacco Products

Despite the wealth of evidence that smoking is harmful to your health, the industry continues to be a bustling enterprise. This success in selling a poison can be partially explained by an aggressive and long term marketing campaign to make tobacco a part of American culture to get people to try it, and retaining customers through the highly addictive nature of the substance. Regardless, tobacco products have a number of ill effects on the body.

  1. Heart Disease

    • More smokers die of heart disease than of lung cancer. This damage comes from a number of sources: one is the carbon monoxide in cigarettes decreases the overall level of oxygen in the smoker's bloodstream. Consequently, all the organs in the body do not necessarily receive the amount of oxygen they need to function properly. This wear and tear will build up over time into serious damage. Additionally, smoking increases clotting factors in the blood (which can increase the risk of a stroke) and damages the lining of blood vessels.

    SIDS

    • The harm tobacco products cause is not limited to the individual using the product. When someone smokes tobacco, the smoke he exhales contains many of the same poisons that he just breathed into his own system. If someone is nearby, she can be exposed to the same risk as the smoker himself. One particularly vulnerable group are infants. Second hand smoke is one cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and can cause asthma attacks and respiratory infections in other children.

    Emphysema

    • When a tobacco smoker uses cigarettes over an extended period of time, he is slowly destroying his ability to breathe in oxygen. This is because he is slowly destroying his own lungs. Over time, he will have a harder and harder time breathing. This is a condition known as emphysema. It is irreversible, but partially treatable. Individuals may need to use inhalers at certain times to breathe properly, others may need oxygen therapy, and others may need to begin carrying oxygen tanks with them.

    Oral Cancer

    • Not all tobacco is smoked: chewing tobacco is also popular. However, chewing tobacco presents several oral risks including gum disease, oral lesions and mouth cancer. The treatment for mouth cancer can involve permanently deforming procedures, such as the removal of part or the entirety of the jaw. Additionally, chewing tobacco also presents many of the same health risks as smoking tobacco, including increased risks of esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer and heart disease.

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