Long-Term Effects Of Cigarette Smoking

Due to all the chemicals contained in a cigarette, the user’s internal organs become similar to the inside of a sewer tunnel. Teenagers have even adapted to the use of this addictive drug. The amounts of users that participate in cigarette smoking are on the rise. It has been concluded from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, nearly 23 percent of high school students use tobacco products, and more than 90 percent of those teens smoke cigarettes, cigars, hookahs or pipes. This Increasing number of users is compatible to the number of deaths …show more content…
I have come across two sources that will help me determine some of the long and short-term effects of cigarette smoking. Drug Abuse Prevention: A School and Community Partnership by Richard Wilson and ‘Relationship between Cigarette Smoking and Novel Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease in the United States’ by Lyndia Bazzano. In my writing I would like to inform my readers of the bad properties cigarette smoking contains, particularly the chemicals in a cigarette that hold large effects on the user. My specific question is why are teenagers not concerned about the degrading health effects that come along with cigarette smoking? A typical teenager, who is addicted to this drug, may not agree or actualize the effects cigarette smoking has on the body because the effects have not presented themselves …show more content…
Such as the body systems, they contain both short-term and long-term effects of tobacco. One of the systems that are affected is the nervous system. “The short-term effects of this system takes place in brain chemistry, such as withdrawal symptoms; nervousness, shakes, and headaches. Other symptoms include, increased heart rate and blood pressure.” (Wilson, 264). Teens who smoke may realize these short-term effects, thinking that they are originated from school stress or other related causes, but not believe that they are actually caused by cigarette smoking. The long-term effect of the nervous system is an increased risk of stroke due to the decreased flow of oxygen to the brain. Another health risk that is caused by smoking is cardiovascular disease. “In the United States, cardiovascular death accounted for approximately 40% of all deaths in 1999 (Bazzano, 891). Bazzano says that cigarette smoking is a major modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and congestive heart failure. As most teens believe these effects are not applicable to them because they are not old but what they do not realize is that they are increasing the risk of this happening to them each and every day when a cigarette is