How does smoking (anything) affect the systems of the body?
Nicotine (a stimulant drug) is the active and addicting drug in tobacco.
Nicotine raises heart rate and blood pressure, increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. Nicotine causes atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and arteriosclerosis (fatty deposits of plaque in the arteries), increasing the risk of heart disease.
When someone breathes in tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas) binds itself to the hemoglobin in our blood which carries oxygen to all our cells. The lack of oxygen to the cells and blood vessels causes the blood vessels to constrict.
There are hundreds of chemicals in tobacco smoke, many of them that are poisons and cancer-causing (carcinogens). Some of these include tar, arsenic, formaldahyde, carbon monoxide, and ammonia.
Smoking can cause conditions like peptic ulcers (open sores in the lining of the stomach), chronic bronchitis, sinusitus, lung cancer and emphysema. Emphysema is when the air sacs in our lungs lose their ability to fill up with air.
Tobacco smoke also destroys the cilia (tiny hair-like structures in the lungs that keeps out harmful substances).
Smokers lose much of their sense of taste and smell.
Second hand smoke is also extremly harmful to those who breath it in.
Mainstream smoke- the smoke the smoker inhales
Side stream smoke- the smoke that burns off the end of a lit cigarette
Second-hand smoke- the smoke the smoker exhales
Third-hand smoke- the smoke left in the walls, carpeting, furniture, clothes, car upholstery, and hair of smokers and non-smokers who are around smokers