Cigarette smoking kills, and where it does not, it still inflicts significant harm upon both the smoker and those in his or her vicinity, the victims of so-called second-hand smoke. Cigarette smoke is harmful to virtually every organ in the human body, and is directly or indirectly responsible for numerous diseases. The National Cancer Institute stated that "cigarette smoking is the largest preventable cause of death and disability in developed countries (Johnson, 2011)." For those who smoke over the course of a lifetime, approximately one half will eventually lose their lives to this habit, most frequently during their middle-age years. According to The Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2011), nearly one half million deaths per year, or twenty percent of the overall annual mortality in the United States can be traced directly to cigarette smoking as the primary cause. This exceeds the combined mortality from all other causes including substance abuse, motor vehicle accidents, and intentional killings. Even stronger correlations are drawn within the subset of deaths due to lung disease, with cigarette smoking being identified as the cause of nearly 90% of deaths resulting from cancer, bronchitis and emphysema.
CO in the bloodstream directly reduces the amount of life-giving oxygen that reaches muscles and organs. This forces the lungs and heart to perform increased work to compensate for both the reduced air flow into the lungs (due to tar), and the lowered available oxygen content (due to the presence of CO). Nicotine and CO thus combine to raise heart rate and blood pressure, resulting in heart attacks and impeded blood flow that can be severe enough to not only cause strokes, but in certain cases also to warrant the amputation of limbs (Johnson, 2011).
The nicotine ingested by smoking cigarettes is actually an insecticide. It has deleterious effects upon neuromuscular activity, blood vessel health, emotional state, chronic stress levels, and bodily resistance to disease. The effect of nicotine is to increase blood viscosity, while simultaneously decreasing the amount of oxygen available for assimilation by bodily membranes, cells and organs. By hindering blood availability to the brain, nicotine also impedes the autonomic nervous system, the system that…
