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Discussion: Smoking and Health Risks

Table of Contents

Introduction
Psychosocial Effects of Smoking
Health Problems Caused by Smoking
Strategies to Eliminate Smoking
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Smoking is generally considered to be one of the most harmful habits. Moreover, it continues to poison billions of people worldwide despite the numerous policies that aim at reducing its popularity. In many societies, smoking has become an essential part of traditions and one of the favorite leisure activities. Thus, it is extremely hard to find the means to eliminate smoking in many places worldwide. Nevertheless, the WHO and numerous other influential organizations are persistent in their attempts to draw attention to the problem and encourage more efficient ways to prevent people from smoking. Therefore, it is important to realize all the harmful consequences of smoking and the multiple health risks accompanying it to address the issue.

Psychosocial Effects of Smoking

Smoking continues to affect not only the health and, consequently, the quality of life of a smoker. It has numerous negative effects on the development of a society that prioritizes a healthy lifestyle. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021), every year nearly half a million Americans die prematurely from smoking or second-hand smoke, and another 16 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Smoking has long been portrayed in various works of art as a luxury and meaningful pastime for influential people who have to relax while making a decision. Moreover, it is often associated with specific values and lifestyles in many parts of the world. Therefore, despite all the multiple changes in the image of smoking, the youth continue to be especially vulnerable.

By starting to smoke, teenagers seek to demonstrate to their peers and adults that they are mature enough to make a weighed decision concerning their health. The problem is that the decision is disastrous, especially in the long run. Although tobacco, in general, has proven to be highly addictive, in most cases, it is not the physical addiction that really hinders peoples attempts to stop smoking. Numerous psychological ties make smoking an important bound in human conscience. Over time, smokers start to believe that the relaxed condition of tobacco and the aesthetics of smoke help them think in a more efficient way. Thus, it is crucial to prevent teenagers and young adults from smoking in the first place.

Health Problems Caused by Smoking

The process of smoking is scientifically well-understood and widely described. The nicotine contained in tobacco, when absorbed into the blood, triggers a number of hormonal and chemical reactions that are mistakenly perceived by smokers as a positive immediate stimulus for brain function and the nervous system. However, in the long run, the negative effects of nicotine addiction cause irreparable damage to all systems of the body. Nicotine increases heart rate and blood pressure and makes blood vessels to constrict, decreasing the amount of oxygen and nutrients received by all cells of the body, which leads to their rapid death.

However, it is not just tobacco that is harmful to health. Numerous components in cigarettes can be much more dangerous for humans. More importantly, most of the cigarettes sold daily are very cheap and of very low quality. It means that tobacco is often substituted with a wide range of artificial materials and substances that are entirely alien to the human body. Thus, smokers are exposed to an extraordinarily high risk of developing different types of cancer, cardiovascular, pulmonary and gastro-intestinal and even reproductive system diseases.

Given the complexity of cigarettes, manufacturers utilize a plethora of materials to ensure the smoking experience that appeals to most smokers. Moreover, such companies constantly seek to diversify their products and create new options to increase their market shares. The lack of regulation allows manufacturers to use components that can be extremely harmful to health when burnt. It is directly responsible for horrifyingly high figures concerning the development of smoking-related diseases. Cigarette smoke consists of approximately 4800 compounds, including at least 69 carcinogens (Mallock et al., 2018). Therefore, if lawmakers are not capable of introducing strict restrictions and highly efficient measures to eliminate smoking, they should at least overview the regulation of tobacco product manufacturing.

One of the arguments popular among smokers states that people should decide whether they want to expose their health to multiple risks or not. Despite the numerous debates centered around such a notion, it is still clear that one of the most severe problems with smoking is the so-called second-hand smoke. It implies that millions of people who have to communicate with or simply stay near smokers are automatically exposed to virtually the same risks that smokers themselves have. Sometimes dozens of people have to breathe in a large amount of smoke because of just one smoker. Thus, it is absolutely unfair that millions of people worldwide are affected by a single habit of a relatively small number of those who do not hesitate to smoke in public areas.

There are numerous adverse effects of smoking, many of them rooted not in tobacco but in a plethora of various compounds. Therefore, it is hard to examine the effect that each one of them has on the human body. Ahluwalia et al. (2018) claim that tobacco use is a leading preventable cause of disease globally. It can cause adverse health outcomes such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and multiple types of cancer, including lung cancer. Smoking, in general, is associated with an increased risk of incident health problems (Jackson et al., 2019). Therefore, it is essential to show people how dangerous smoking is and provide vivid examples that prove the existence of high risks.

Strategies to Eliminate Smoking

Most affluent societies have already developed and established highly efficient strategies that prevent people from smoking and make smoking in public areas impossible. According to Ahluwalia et al. (2018), approximately 80% of the worlds 1.1 billion tobacco smokers reside in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore, it is crucial to implement policies and strategies that have proven to be successful in high-income economies in other regions.

The increasing popularity of a variety of tobacco products that do not need to be burnt has also raised numerous concerns worldwide. Although they are believed to represent safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes and can even help smokers quit their harmful habit, they sometimes promote tobacco products because they are safer. Thus, millions of people who realize all the adverse effects of smoking sometimes do not hesitate to start using safe options. Moreover, some of such products can contain large amounts of tobacco that far exceed the quantities used in traditional cigarettes.

The quality of data is essential in anti-smoking campaigns and the ability to transmit the information duly. According to Guilbeault and Centola (2020), exposure to anti-smoking messages sometimes unexpectedly strengthens smokers pro-smoking bias and, as a result, increases the prevalence of smoking behavior. Therefore, governments and activists worldwide should find the most efficient tools that can help convince people of all the adverse effects of smoking by providing real-life stories and images, not dull figures.

Conclusion

There are numerous health issues that are rooted in smoking. Even though tobacco is extremely dangerous for the cardiovascular system, it is just one of the risk factors associated with smoking. A wide range of policies and campaigns that have proven to be efficient in some of the affluent societies should be tailored to ensure an equally efficient result elsewhere. Therefore, it is crucial that activists, politicians, medical experts, and advertisers cooperate in developing and establishing a framework to help eliminate smoking in different communities.

References

Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Smoking & tobacco use: Data and statistics. Web.

Ahluwalia, I. B., Smith, T., Arrazola, R. A., Palipudi, K. M., de Quevedo, I. G., Prasad, V. M.,& & Armour, B. S. (2018). Current tobacco smoking, quit attempts, and knowledge about smoking risks among persons aged e 15 years Global adult tobacco survey, 28 countries, 20082016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(38), 10721076. Web.

Guilbeault, D., & Centola, D. (2020). Networked collective intelligence improves the dissemination of scientific information regarding smoking risks. PloS ONE, 15(2), e0227813. Web.

Jackson, S. E., Brown, J., Ussher, M., Shahab, L., Steptoe, A., & Smith, L. (2019). Combined health risks of cigarette smoking and low levels of physical activity: A prospective cohort study in England with 12-year follow-up. BMJ Open, 9(11), e032852. Web.

Mallock, N., Böss, L., Burk, R., Danziger, M., Welsch, T., Hahn, H.,& & Luch, A. (2018). Levels of selected analytes in the emissions of heat not burn tobacco products that are relevant to assess human health risks. Archives of toxicology, 92(6), 21452149. Web.

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