Harmful Effects of Tobacco

In the United States, the use of cigarettes has decreased from nearly 42% of the population in 1965, to nearly 19% among adults in 2011. However, cigarette smoking remains the most common form of tobacco used in the US that about 43.8 million adults smoke cigarettes. Near 22% of men and 17% of women were found to be cigarette smokers in 2011. Education has a strong relation with cigarette smoking rates. People with higher education have a lower smoking rate. Therefore, more people smoke in the Midwest, about 22%, and fewer smoke in the West, about 15% as there are higher levels of education in the west, where major cities are located. Figure 8, on the following page, shows the annual cigarette consumption per capita worldwide, and identifies the different levels. Although cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco used, it does not end with cigarettes alone. Other forms of tobacco are also common worldwide. A survey conducted by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration in 2010, noted that 8.9 million people used smokeless or spit tobacco, 13.2 million used cigars, and 2.2 million people smoked tobacco in pipes. Worldwide, there are about 852 million people that use tobacco in its various forms. This breaks into 41% of the population of men worldwide and only 5% of the population of women. Moreover, China and India both have the largest population in smoking tobacco with 301 million and 275 million smokers respectively.

Tobacco and young people:

Tobacco, in all its forms, is widely common among young people. According to government surveys, even though smoking, dipping snuff, chewing and spit tobacco is common among most teens, they are more common among young males. Figure 9 breaks down the perce...

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...graph. As a result, by harming the lungs and destroying some of its functions, smoking leads to what is known as the smoker’s cough.

The smoker’s cough:

Smokers usually have a smoker's cough that is a result of inhaling irritable particles and chemicals from the tobacco smoke. This "smoker's cough" clears away the mucus and irritants that are found in the lung. It results from the delay of the cilia, as smoking tobacco destroys it, which is used to sweep harmful material out of the lungs. The effect of smoking on the cilia is shown in Figure 15. Some particles of smoke remain in the lungs and mucus stays in the airways; therefore, when the smoker coughs, all irritable particles are cleared from the lungs. The smoker's cough also gets rid of the toxins and tar found in the lungs, and is therefore regarded as a defense mechanism because it does the job of the cilia.