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Chapter 20
TOBACCO
Pick Your Poison!
Chemicals Found in Tobacco
Smoke
 with each puff on a cigarette, cigar or pipe, a
smoker inhales over 4,000 different chemicals
 Of these 4,000, at least 1,000 of them are
known to be dangerous
 The most deadly are known as nicotine, tar,
and carbon monoxide
Chemicals Found in Tobacco
Smoke
 Acetaldehyde
 Acetone
 Ammonia
 Benzene
 Butadione
 Ethylamine
 Nitrogen dioxide
 Hydrogen sulfide
Chemicals found in Tobacco
Smoke
 Formaldehyde
 Vinyl chloride
 Toluene
 Hydrogen sulfide
 Hydrocyanic acid
 Methyl alcohol
 Methylamine
 Phenol
Nicotine
 This is the drug in tobacco that acts as a
stimulant and is addictive
 STIMULANT: a drug that speeds up the
activities of the central nervous system, the
heart, and other organs
 In its pure form, nicotine is one of the
strongest poisons known
 Taken in large amounts, nicotine can kill
people by paralyzing their breathing muscles
Nicotine
 Tolerance of nicotine can occur as early on as
a second or third cigarette in a new smoker
 As tolerance builds a person needs to smoke
more and more to produce the same feeling
 The Surgeon General ( the country’s highest
medical authority) has said nicotine is as
additive of a drug as heroin and cocaine
Nicotine Withdrawal
 This is a reaction of lack of nicotine
 Symptoms includes head aches, irritability,
restlessness, increased coughing, nausea,
vomiting, a general feeling of illness, intense
craving for tobacco
 Withdrawal can begin as soon as two hours
after the last cigarette
 physical cravings reaches its peak in 24 hours
TAR
TAR
 Tar is the dark stick mixture of chemicals that
is formed when tobacco burns
 Tar is the yellowish browning substance
found on the fingers and teeth of smokers
 it also sticks to the cells of the respiratory
track where it damages cells\
 The tar in tobacco smoke contains hundreds
of chemical carcinogens
 CARCINOGENS : cancer causing agents
 Cancers of the lungs, throat and mouth are
cause by the inhalation of tar and tobacco
smoke
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon Monoxide
 is a poisonous, colorless, odorless gas that is
found in cigarette smoke
 When carbon monoxide is inhaled it takes the
place of large amounts of oxygen from your
blood.
 Carbon monoxide also makes it difficult for
the oxygen left in your blood to get to your
muscles and organs
 When a person smokes it means the heart
works harder but accomplishes less
Long Term Effects of Tobacco
Long Term Effects of Tobacco
 tobacco products are directly responsible for
the deaths of 400,000 Americans each year
 Worldwide, 1 in 5 deaths are related to
smoking health related problems
Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular Disease
 This is a disease of the heart and blood
vessels that kills over 115,000 tobacco users
each year just in the United States!
 A smoker is three times more likely to suffer a
heart attack than a non smoker
 A heart attack is 5 times more likely to kill a
smoker than a non smoker
Cardiovascular disease is caused by the
weakening of blood vessels
Cardiovascular Disease
 These blood vessels are weakened because
the heart is doing so much more work to
circulate and push blood throughout the
blood of a smoker as opposed to a non
smoker
 Nicotine also promotes fatty build up in the
walls of these blood vessels that cause
blockages
 These blockages are responsible for heart
attacks
Respiratory Disease
Respiratory Disease
 many smokers suffer from dry and hacking
coughs
 Tar destroys the cilia in your respiratory tract (
little hairs that sweep away dust and other
particles), these foreign particles are not
cleared away and ingested causing a smoker
to cough much more than a nonsmoker
 A person can no longer clear the passage with
their cough and mucus fills the bronchial
tubes
Respiratory Disease
 In time due to this cough the person will
develop CHRONIC BRONCHITIS
 This is a condition in which the bronchial
tubes become swollen and clogged with
mucus
 People with chronic bronchitis find it difficult
with fill their lungs with air
 Simple activities such as walking stairs, may
find themselves gasping for air
Respiratory Disease
 Here is currently no cure for chronic
bronchitis
 Smoking can lead to more serious disease
such as EMPHYSEMA
 This is a breathing disorder in which the small
air sacs in the lungs loose their ability to
expand and contract
 Oxygen passes through the lungs and into the
blood stream, while carbon dioxide passes
through the air sacs and out of the body
Respiratory Disease
 People with emphysema cannot give their
body enough oxygen or rid their body of
carbon dioxide
 The damaged done to the lungs cannot be
reversed
 Even if the emphysema victim quits smoking
the damage to the lungs is permanent
Cancer
 Tobacco use is also a major factor in
developing certain cancers
 CANCER is an area of uncontrolled cell
growth that invades the surrounding tissue
and destroys it
 Cancer can begin in any part of the body and
travel to other areas
 In the United States, lung cancer is known to
be the most deadly form of cancer