According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 20th century, tobacco caused 100 million deaths. If current trends continue, in the 21st century, due to tobacco, there will be one billion deaths. Tobacco kills up to half of people who use it. Every 6 seconds about one person dies because of tobacco. Annually, tobacco causes almost 6 million deaths, of which more than 5 million cases occur among consumers and former tobacco users, and more than 600,000 are among non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. Secondary tobacco smoke is smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other closed premises where people smoke. In tobacco smoke, there are more than 4,000 chemicals, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful, and more than 50 are known as carcinogens. There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke.
It is necessary that everyone can breathe air free of tobacco smoke. Normative legal acts to provide a smoke-free environment protect the health of non-smokers, are popular, do not harm business and encourage smokers to quit smoking.
If urgent measures are not taken, the number of annual deaths by 2030 may exceed eight million. Consumers of tobacco, dying prematurely, deprive their families of income, increase the cost of medical care and impede economic development.
Reducing cigarette consumption by 1.9% will save more than 38,000 lives per year.
According to the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) today, 30% of all deaths from cancer are associated with smoking. Reduction of tobacco consumption by half will give an opportunity to save 170 million lives by 2050.
Smoking cessation even in middle and older age gives its positive result: the risk of tumors associated with smoking (from 5 to 15%), as well as heart attacks and strokes is reduced.
According to the World Health Organization, smoking causes 90% of deaths from lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and ischemic heart disease. Experts statistically reliably associate smoking with the growth of diseases leading to disability: coronary heart disease, tuberculosis, emphysema and lung cancer, asthmatic bronchitis, peptic ulcer and duodenal ulcer, diseases of the nervous system, etc. Physicians proved that the average life expectancy of a smoker on 9 years less than non-smoker. Studies conducted in the US and Europe have shown that the risk of lung cancer increases in direct proportion to the number of cigarettes smoked. The close relationship of smoking and cancer is primarily due to the chemical substances formed during the combustion of tobacco, called carcinogens. In tobacco smoke, they found more than 1.5 dozen. It is established that the risk of developing cancer is significantly (almost 30 times) higher in malignant smokers and early onset of smoking. The mortality from cancer also increases in parallel with the consumption of cigarettes. The risk factor associated with smoking is different for tumors of different locations and depends on the age at the start of smoking, the duration of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked per day.
Diseases of the nervous system. Many smokers believe that smoking improves brain function, helps to focus, increases attention. Is it so? According to a study by the English experts on smoking, it is known that nicotine, contained in just one cigarette, is enough to significantly reduce the concentration of attention and slow down the response to unexpected changes in the situation. Tobacco smoking increases the risk of developing acute cerebrovascular accidents (cerebral infarct, intracerebral hemorrhage), which leads among the causes of disability of the population: 75-80% of survivors lose their ability to work. Smoking of tobacco and simultaneous reception of combined oral contraceptives significantly increases the probability of hemorrhage in the brain in women.
Pulmonary diseases. A large number of chemicals enter the bloodstream through the lungs. Cigarette smoke, coming into direct contact with the lungs, significantly increases the risk of pneumonia, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and other lung diseases.
Diseases of the stomach. The negative effect of long-term smoking is the development of various chronic stomach diseases in a person, up to the development of peptic ulcer. In addition, smoking slows the healing of ulcers and promotes their reappearance.
Smoking and pregnancy. Nicotine adversely affects not only the physical, but also the mental state of the unborn child. German scientists have proved that for children born by smoking mothers, at an early age, inattention, impulsiveness and useless overactivity are typical, the level of mental development in them is below the average. Most often, the so-called syndrome of "Phil's non-attendance" is developing - these children are, as a rule, aggressive and prone to deceit. British doctors concluded that children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were 40% more likely to develop autism. Smoking women are more likely that pregnancy can result in premature birth, miscarriage or stillbirth. Also, studies do not exclude that children born to mothers who smoked during and after pregnancy are more likely to experience sudden infant death syndrome.
Lung cancer. Modern work on the relationship between tobacco smoking and the incidence of lung cancer shows with great conviction that: 1) smokers suffer from lung cancer much more often than non-smokers; 2) the incidence of lung cancer in smokers is directly related to the degree of smoking, i.e. more malignant smokers get sick more often than few smokers; 3) tobacco smoking has primarily a local effect on the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, mainly through the impact on it of tobacco tar, the carcinogenicity of which is firmly established; 4) smoking has not only a local, but also a general effect on the body, reducing its resistance and predisposing to the development of cancer in general.
Among those with lung cancer, smoking accounts for more than 90%, and among the remaining 10%, most were passive smokers, i.e. from childhood were among smokers. At the same time, it is extremely important that the cessation of smoking reduces the risk of lung cancer: after 5 years the incidence rate begins to fall, and 20 years after stopping it approaches that of non-smokers.
Cancer of the bladder. The risk of developing bladder cancer among smokers is 5-6 times higher. It grows with the increase in the number of cigarettes smoked per day and the duration of smoking, as well as those who started smoking at a young age.
Prostate cancer. According to British and Canadian researchers, the risk of prostate cancer increases in proportion to the duration of smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked per day. In men who have smoked more than 15 packs of cigarettes per year for the past 10 years, compared with non-smokers, the risk of disseminated prostate cancer increases.
Kidney cancer. According to American researchers, 17% of kidney cancer is associated with smoking (21% in men and 11% in women). Reducing the risk of developing kidney cancer by 30% occurs 10 years after quitting.
Also dangerous consequences of the influence of smoking in the development of diabetes, atherosclerosis, obliterating endarteritis, infertility in women, impotence in men, autoimmune diseases are proved.
Passive smoking and its consequences.
The inhalation of air with tobacco smoke is called passive smoking. Tobacco smoke is harmful not only for the smoker himself, but also for those who are with him nearby. Particularly belongs to small children in the families of smokers. Sleep and appetite disorders, disruption of the stomach and intestines, increased irritability, poor performance and a backlog in physical development are a far from complete list of the consequences of passive smoking in children.
Smoke, flowing from a lit cigarette, is unfiltered smoke. It contains 50 times more carcinogens, twice more tar and nicotine, five times more carbon monoxide and 50 times more ammonia than smoke inhaled through a cigarette. For people working in a heavily smoky room, the degree of passive smoking can reach the equivalent of 14 smoked cigarettes a day, which brings them closer to a regular smoker.
According to studies conducted in the United States, there are convincing facts indicating an increase in the incidence of lung cancer among non-smokers who live with smokers.
Inhaled passive tobacco smoke is a strong irritant for the lungs. Studies have shown that children raised in families where parents smoke, show signs of disorders that are closely related to heart disease in adulthood. In people suffering from asthma, especially in children, secondhand smoke can provoke attacks of this disease.