Nicotine is the stimulant found in all tobacco products such as: cigarettes, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and cigars.
Cigarettes contain at least 43 distinct cancer-causing chemicals.
Smoking is directly responsible for 87 percent of lung cancer cases and causes most cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking is also a major factor in coronary heart
disease and stroke; and has been linked to a variety of other conditions and disorders, including slowed healing of wounds, infertility, and peptic ulcer disease.
LONG TERM EFFECTS
- high blood pressure
- blockage of blood vessels
- depletion of vitamin C
- reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system
- cancer of the mouth, throat, and lungs
- cancer of the upper respiratory tract
- bronchitis and/or emphysema
- stomach ulcers
- weight loss
- dryness and wrinkling of the skin
- production of abnormal sperm in males.
The long term health effects of smoking may seem to be in the distant fututre, but they're real.
Each year, smoking kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse, car crashes, murders, suicides, and fires--combined!!
More than one million kids will start smoking this year. One-third of them will die from their addiction.
