Smoking effects on health and disease

Smoking negatively impacts health, the economy and our very social structure. In our modern life, the differences between smokers and non-smokers could not be more obvious. With a legalized segregation of the two populations becoming the norm throughout the world and, in particular, the United States, what divides smokers and non-smokers is not just the nature of the habit, but the law as well.

Legally, it is the non-smokers who are being protected from the effects of the smoking habit: second hand-smoke, eye and lung irritation, unpleasant smells, the detritus associated with smoking, and the related direct-costs of cancer, emphysema, pneumonia, cataracts, periodontitis and aneurysm, (Associated Press). On the smoker's side, there is still the air (no pun intended) of "cool" and "rebellion" about the act and, most significantly, addiction and, often death. Smoking crosses many lines, but is most prevalent among people with lower levels of completed education. Socially, smokers have been shifted from the norm to the "abnormal" over the course of the past several decades. The result of this shift has been felt in truly significant ways. Starting with the warning labels and continuing with a two-pronged approach of increasing the price of tobacco products while simultaneously decreasing the number of places people can publicly smoke has resulted in year-over-year declines in the prevalence of smoking throughout the Western world. This, then, is a very good thing because the overall effect of tobacco is to damage the health of those who smoke and those around the smoker. Smoking negatively impacts health, the economy and our very social structure.

When we consider the effects of smoking, overall, upon the entire population, what we see is an apparent never-ending list of primary and secondary health, as well as significant economic, social and political effects. The most significant of all the effects of smoking is that it has a direct and immediate negative effect upon the body of the smoker. The chemicals in tobacco, of which there can be hundreds depending upon the "blend," have both an immediate and cumulative effect upon the smoker. The most well-researched of all the smoking-related chemicals, nicotine, reaches the brain within 10 seconds after intake," the result is "increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, thickening of blood, increased respiration, decreased skin temperature, and a stimulation of the central nervous system (Daly). The cumulative effect? Smokers die an average of 13 to 14 years earlier, are more likely to die from cancer (particularly of the lungs), and are more likely to suffer life-long conditions that affect their lung capacity, the elasticity of their skin, and the overall function of their brain.