Smoking is one of the worst things people can do to their bodies. Yet every single day nearly 4,400 kids between the ages 12 and 17 start smoking. Why? There’s more than just one simple answer. Some kids may start smoking just because they’re curious. Others may like the idea of doing something dangerous – something grown-ups don’t want them to do. Still others might have grown up around lots of people who smoke and they might think it’s the way to act like an adult.You’ve probably heard that smoking and tobacco use can cause cancer and heart disease. That’s true, but sometimes kids can’t really think that far into the future to worry about an illness they might not get for 20 years. So let’s talk about the problems that might affect kids more quickly:
• bad breath
• yellow teeth
• smelly clothes
• more colds and coughs
• difficulty keeping up with friends when playing sports
• empty wallet – cigarettes and tobacco products are very expensive!
Smoking tobacco goes back thousands of years. Tobacco smoking with pipes and cigars was common to many Native American cultures prior to the arrival of European explorers. The practice is depicted in early Mayan art dating back to around 1,500 years ago. The Maya were also known to use tobacco as an all-purpose medicinal antidote, and the crop was widely believed to possess magical powers as its usage has been documented in ancienDuring World War I, it was typical for tobacco products to be included in military rations.[3] Following the war, cigarette smoking was advertised as part of a glamorous, carefree lifestyle, and became socially acceptable for woment ceremonial sacrifices and divinations as well as in talismans. In the 1930s, Nazi medical and military leaders grew concerned with the possibility that tobacco might be hazardous to human health and their scientists were the first to confirm this link. In the United States, biologist Raymond Pearl demonstrated the negative health effects of tobacco smoking as early as 1938. In the 1950s and 1960s, the medical community along with various governmental bodies, and Readers Digest magazine, began a campaign to reduce the degree of smoking by showing how it damaged public health. Although tobacco smoking in many regions of the world has dropped dramatically in recent years,[4] worldwide tobacco production is still growing.[5] Smoking rates continue to remain relatively high in some Asian countries.[6]
There are some types of smoking:
Cigarette
A cigarette is a product manufactured from cured and cut tobacco leaves, which are rolled and/or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder , the oldest woman ever recorded, was a smoker and only quit when she was 117 years old, because, nearly blind, she felt embarrassed to ask for a light. She was the last recognized surviving person of the 1870’s. Smoking affects different people in different ways.
cigarette holder. (See also Bidi). A cigarette contains over 4000 chemicals, over 60 of which increase the risk of cancer and other diseases in humans and animals. Jeanne Calment
Cigar
Smoking pipe
Tobacco used for smoking pipes is often chemically treated and altered to change smell and taste (both functions are affected negatively in humans by smoking) not available in other tobacco products sold commercially.
Health effects
There are no physical reasons to start smoking – the body doesn’t need tobacco the way it needs food, water, sleep, and exercise. In fact, many of the chemicals in cigarettes, like nicotine and cyanide, are actually poisons that can kill in high enough doses. The body’s smart and it goes on the defense when it’s being poisoned. For this reason, many people find it takes several tries to get started smoking: First-time smokers often feel pain or burning in the throat and lungs, and some people feel sick or even throw up the first few times they try tobacco.The consequences of this poisoning happen gradually. Over the long term, smoking leads people to develop health problems like cancer, emphysema (breakdown of lung tissue), organ damage, and heart disease. These diseases limit a person’s ability to be normally active – and can be fatal. Each time a smoker lights up, that single cigarette takes about 5 to 20 minutes off the person’s life. Smokers not only develop wrinkles and yellow teeth, they also lose bone density, which increases their risk of osteoporosis (pronounced: ahs-tee-o-puh-row-sus, a condition that causes older people to become bent over and their bones to break more easily). Smokers also tend to be less active than nonsmokers because smoking affects lung power. Smoking can also cause fertility problems in both men and women and can impact sexual health in males.The consequences of smoking may seem very far off to many teens, but long-term health problems aren’t the only hazard of smoking. Nicotine and the other toxins in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes can affect a person’s body quickly, which means that teen smokers experience many of these problems: