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Drug Awareness

Smoking

Smoking is not illegal, although in Queensland it is illegal to sell cigarettes to young people aged under 18 years.

What is harmful about smoking?

Cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is a poison. Just two or three drops of pure nicotine are enough to kill an adult. When used as a concentrated insect spray, nicotine is 10 times more toxic than DDT. It causes the narrowing of blood vessels, which in turn affects circulation.

Cigarettes also contain tar. Tar is released (in the form of small particles in the smoke) when a cigarette burns.

The absorption of this smoke and the tar within it is the main cause of lung and throat cancer in smokers and also aggravates bronchial and respiratory disease as well as causing ‘smoker’s cough,’ shortness of breath and wheezing and the yellow staining of fingers and teeth. It is also how non-smokers become ‘passive smokers’ and can get lung cancer.

An average smoker, on one packet a day, inhales more than half a cup of tar from cigarettes each year. The benefits of switching to low-tar cigarettes are minimal as studies show smokers who switch to low-tar cigarettes tend to smoke more cigarettes and/or inhale more deeply.

Carbon monoxide is another product of smoking. Carbon monoxide is an odourless, colourless and very toxic gas. It is found in car exhaust fumes and fire smoke, as well as in tobacco smoke. Smoking cigarettes causes a greater concentration of carbon monoxide in the lungs than does breathing in polluted air.

An average smoker, on one packet a day, inhales more than half a cup of tar from cigarettes each year.

High levels of carbon monoxide in the blood are typically found in people who smoke. This increases the risk of developing circulation problems such as hardening of the arteries and coronary heart disease.

Small amounts of more than 4,000 other substances can be found in cigarette smoke, including some which are toxic and 43 which have been identified as being carcinogenic (causing cancer). Among the substances found in cigarette smoke are acetone, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.

Is one form of smoking better than another?

Just how smoking affects health depends on the method of smoking – whether you smoke a cigar, a pipe, cigarettes or chewing tobacco. Cigar and pipe tobaccos differ chemically to cigarette tobacco because of the different processing methods. But while cigarettes are smaller than cigars and pipes, cigarette smokers inhale more deeply, and their lungs are exposed more directly to irritants in the smoke.

Overall, the rate of deaths due to tobacco related cancers of the mouth, throat and larynx are similar in smokers of cigarettes and smokers of pipes and cigars. There also seems to be a relationship between pipe smoking and the incidence of lip cancer.
How can smoking affect my health?

Smoking has many proven negative effects on health. Evidence is accumulating to prove that it is related to increased risk of:
  • High blood pressure
  • Shortness of breath and coughing
  • Narrowing and hardening of arteries, particularly in the heart and legs
  • Respiratory infections – colds, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis
  • Emphysema, which is a chronic, progressive lung disease
  • Heart attack and coronary heart disease
  • Cancer of the lungs, mouth, larynx, pharynx, oesophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas and cervix
  • Peripheral vascular disease, due to decreased blood flow in the blood vessels in the legs
  • Problems in conceiving, due to effects on female fertility
  • Early onset of the physical effects of ageing, such as dry skin and wrinkles
  • Stains on fingers and teeth
High levels of carbon monoxide in the blood are typically found in people who smoke. This increases the risk of developing circulation problems such as hardening of the arteries and coronary heart disease.

How can smoking affect non-smokers?


Passive smoking is a term used to describe the effect of tobacco smoke on people who do not smoke but spend time with smokers.

Mainstream smoke is smoke drawn through a cigarette into a smoker’s mouth and lungs. Second-hand smoke is the smoke exhaled (breathed out).

Sidestream smoke is the smoke that drifts off the end of a cigarette in to the air and is completely unfiltered. Some poisons in tobacco smoke are more concentrated in sidestream smoke than in mainstream smoke.

There is evidence that passive smoking is a significant cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and acute asthma attacks in asthma sufferers.

Kids whose parents smoke also have an increased risk of SIDS and serious chest illnesses such as pneumonia and bronchitis. The effects of passive smoking will depend on how long the non-smoker spends in a smoke-filled environment, how well the air flows in the area and how many cigarettes are being smoked.

There is evidence that passive smoking is a significant cause of lung cancer in non-smokers and acute asthma attacks in asthma sufferers.

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