WHAT’S IN A CIGARETTE?
Tobacco smoke is a complex mixture of more than 4,000
chemicals in the form of gases, particles or both. When you
inhale cigarette smoke, dozens of harmful substances enter
your lungs and spread through your body. They can reach
your brain, heart and other organs within 10 seconds of the
first puff. They include:
NICOTINE – an addictive drug and a toxin that narrows
your veins and arteries. Nicotine raises your blood pressure
and damages your heart by forcing it to pump faster and
work harder. It also affects your appetite.
CARBON MONOXIDE – a gas that robs your heart of the
oxygen it needs as fuel to pump blood around your body.
Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your
lungs.
TAR – clogs your lungs and contains many dangerous
chemicals that can cause cancer.
FINE PARTICLES – can irritate your throat and lungs,
cause ‘smoker’s cough’, make you produce more mucus
and damage lung tissue.
HOW ELSE CAN SMOKING HARM YOUR
HEALTH?
CANCER – smoking is widely recognised as causing lung
cancer, but it also increases the risk of cancer of the lips, tongue, mouth, nose, oesophagus, pharynx, larynx, pancreas,
bladder, cervix, vulva, penis and anus. Other cancers (of the stomach, kidney, liver and blood) have also been linked to
smoking.
DIABETES – smoking worsens some of the health complications caused by type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes.
Smoking raises the blood sugar level, making it harder to control the high blood sugar levels caused by diabetes.
INFECTIONS – bacteria and viruses can more easily enter and take hold in your body because smoking damages the
lining of your throat and lungs and weakens your immune system.
BREATHING PROBLEMS – in the long term, you are more likely to have some degree of
emphysema, a disease that causes progressive shortness of breath, as smoking cuts the
amount of oxygen able to be carried from the air into your blood. As a smoker you will be more
prone to asthma attacks because smoking narrows your airways.
AGEING – you will look prematurely aged, as wrinkles appear around your eyes and mouth
sooner and deeper than in non-smokers. A woman who smokes tends to reach menopause one
or two years earlier than a non-smoker because smoking reduces the amount of estrogen in
her body. She is also more likely to develop osteoporosis – the weakening of the bones that
accompanies ageing.
Text from http://www.health.gov.au/
1- So what is good/bad about smoking? What do you/don’t you like about it? What do you look forward to
when you are thinking about smoking? Tick the sentences you agree with and add new ones:
It’s relaxing It’s becoming socially unacceptable with the
It helps people to concentrate new smoke free legislation
Smokers enjoy the taste I don’t like the unpleasant smell of smoke at
Smokers enjoy the ritual of handling and home, in bars,…
lightening up I don’t like the smell of smoke on my hair
It helps people to control the appetite and clothes
It’s something people do when they are I don’t like the nicotine stains on smokers’
bored teeth and fingers.
It gives confidence in social situations It causes different types of cancer.
It helps people cope with feelings such as Smokers’ breath stinks.
anger, anxiety or frustration …………………………………………………
A lot of people I know smoke. ………..
It has a great impact on health …………………………………………………
It’s expensive ……......
When you smoke you are controlled by the …………………………………………………
smoking habit ……….
Smokers may feel pressure to quit from
family, friends, doctor or others
2- Read the text and the image and answer the questions:
a- How many ingredients does tobacco have?
b- What are the effects of nicotine in your body?
c- What else apart from a cigarette produces carbon monoxide?
d- What component of the cigarette causes cancer?
e- What damages lung tissue?
f- What types of cancer does smoking provoke?
g- What chemical can you find in a cigarette that was used in the gas
chambers?
h- What is diabetes type-1?
i- How does diabetes affect our body?
j- If you smoke, are you more likely to suffer from asthma? Why?
k- What happens to women who smoke?
l- Which chemical in cigarettes is used to clean the floor?
m- What is osteoporosis?
n- What do you use napthalene for?
