Tobacco Use: Dangers and Prevention

2. Internet Resources • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov • National Institutes of Health: www.nih.gov • Healthfinder: www.healthfinder.gov • MedlinePlus: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus

3. Tobacco Use “Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. While tobacco companies continue to publish full-page advertisements refuting the dangers of smoking, nearly 440,000 Americans die each year of tobacco related diseases.” (CDC,2007).

4. Tobacco • Tobacco is a plant that contains nicotine • Nicotine is a stimulant drug that is found in all tobacco products • Can be smoked in the form of cigarettes, cigars, and pipes • Three harmful ingredients/products: • Tar • Nicotine • Carbon Monoxide

5. Ingredient Vs. By-Products • Ingredients: The elements or chemicals found in products • Ex: Nicotine • By-Products: Produced in the action of using a product • Carbon Dioxide

6. Smoking • Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemicals, with 43 being carcinogens. • About 48 million adults smoke and 3.1 million adolescents smoke. • Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body; causing many diseases and reducing the health of smokers in general. • About 400,000 or 1 in every 6 deaths are caused by smoking each year.

7. Smoking • More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from illegal drugs, alcohol, homicides, suicides, AIDS, car accidents, and fires combined. • Research has shown that smoking during pregnancy causes health problems for both mothers and babies, such as: Pregnancy complications, Premature birth, Low-birth-weight infants, Stillbirth, Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

8. Advertising P. 430 – 431 • How do tobacco companies influence young people? • Must all companies have the same warning on their packages? • What do tobacco ads fail to tell people? • How do tobacco companies get young people hooked? • Where are tobacco companies not allowed to advertise?

9. Tobacco AdvertisingP. 430 • Tobacco companies can not advertise on TV, radio, and in teen magazines • Tobacco companies spend billions of dollars each year to influence people to use tobacco, with the majority of the ads aimed at teens • They do not tell you that more than 400,000 people die each your because of smoking

10. Local Health Bureau • Responsible for enforcing the sale of tobacco • You must be 18 in PA to buy tobacco products • Surgeon General- Spokesperson and advocate for health issues and for prevention of diseases. Linked all of the following diseases to cigarette smoking: • Lung Cancer • Emphysema • Coronary Artery Disease

11. Carbon Monoxide • An odorless, tasteless gas that interferes with the ability of blood to carry oxygen • Deadly gas formed during the burning of tobacco • It inhibits the body’s ability to carry oxygen to organs such as the heart and brain • When inhaled, it combines with the oxygen carrying hemoglobin, not allowing them to carry oxygen

13. Carbon Monoxide • Exposure to the gas can damage and kill organs that were starved of oxygen • It takes much longer for your body to eliminate carbon monoxide than to absorb it, which is one reason why exposure can be so dangerous. • When carbon monoxide levels drop in the blood, oxygen levels raise to normal.

14. Smoking • Filters trap very little of the tar and nicotine in tobacco smoke. • These factors increase the chances of getting a smoking related disease: • How long you smoke • How much you smoke • Occupation/Environment • In recent years, smoking among teens has decreased. • About half of all smokers started before the age of 18.

15. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD/COLD) • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a general term for a group of diseases that cause progressive damage to your lungs. It is a disease that interferes with breathing. • These diseases include chronic bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.

16. Bronchitis • A recurring inflammation of the bronchial tubes- the two main tubes/airways that connect the wind pipe to the lungs • Causes mucus to line the bronchial tubes- less air is then able to flow from the lungs • Causes deep, harsh coughing and wheezing “smokers cough”

17. Emphysema • Alveoli lose most of most of their ability to function properly. • Alveoli are small balloon like structures that attach to the bronchial passages. • They inflate and deflate with inhalation and exhalation.

18. Emphysema Continued • The lungs lose their ability to inflate and hold air. • Air is trapped in the lungs due to a lack of supportive tissue, which in-turn decreases blood oxygenation. • The small balloon like structures burst instead of inflating and holding air. • People with emphysema breathe about 30x’s a minute

19. Cardiovascular Disease • Smoking speeds up the development of cholesterol/fat deposits in the arteries and damages the inner lining of the arteries. • Fat deposits reduce the space in the artery through which blood can flow • This causes the risk of developing blood clots to increase. • A clot in the artery can cause a heart attack

20. Smoking • Mainstream Smoke: The smoke that is directly inhaled into the smoker’s mouth and lungs. • Sidestream Smoke: Smoke that enters the air from a burning cigarette, cigar, or pipe. This has more tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and ammonia than mainstream smoke.

21. Smoking • Environmental Smoke/ Secondhand Smoke: Exhaled mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke. This is also known as passive smoking and involuntary smoking.

22. Methods to Quit Smoking • Nicotine Patch • Nicotine Chewing Gum • Nicotine nasal spray • Nicotine Inhaler • Non-nicotine pill • Cold Turkey- Most DIFFICULT and most SUCCESSFUL

23. Quitting • If a smoker quits, the chance of premature death is greatly reduced • Nicotine Withdrawal- may cause people to become irritable, restless, anxious, or have cravings • Teens have a more difficult time quitting smoking than people who start when they are older.