Smoking - BBC Bitesize

Cigarette smoke

Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including approximately 69 known cancer causing chemicals as well as over 400 other poisons.

Cigarette smoke contains the following:

Effects of smoking

Smoking is very harmful to health. In Northern Ireland, around 2,300 people die from smoking related illnesses each year. That’s about 15% of all deaths.

Smoking causes or can lead to:

many types of cancer including – lung, mouth, throat, voice box, bladder, bowel, cervix, kidney, liver, stomach…
leukaemia
heart disease
blood pressure problems
stroke
fertility problems
serious breathing conditions
weak bones

It also has unpleasant side-effects such as wrinkles, smelly clothes and hair and bad breath. And it can be very hard to stop.

The harmful substances in cigarette smoke include:

Harmful substance	Associated Risk
Tar	Causes cancer of the lungs, mouth and throat. Coats the inside of the lungs, including the alveoli, causing coughing. Damages the alveoli, making it more difficult for gas exchange to happen.
Smoke	Cells with tiny hair-like parts, called cilia move mucus, that traps dirt and microbes, out of the lungs towards the trachea. Hot smoke and tar damage the cilia. As a result, smokers cough to move the mucus. More likely to get bronchitis
Nicotine	Nicotine is addictive it causes a smoker to want more cigarettes. Can increases the heart rate and blood pressure. Makes blood vessels narrower than normal which can lead to heart disease
Carbon monoxide	Takes the place of oxygen in red blood cells. This reduces the amount of oxygen that the blood can carry. Circulatory system has to work harder, causing heart disease.

Image caption,
A section through a normal lung

Image caption,
A section through a smoker’s lungs, blackened by tar

Passive smoking

To combat the harmful effects of passive smoking, it is now illegal to smoke:

Inside public buildings
In the workplace
On public transport such as buses, trains and planes
In a car while carrying somebody aged 18 or under

Electronic cigarettes

An electronic, or E-cigarette is a battery-operated device that emits a vapour to inhale, which usually contains nicotine. The aim is to provide the sensation of inhaling tobacco smoke, without the smoke.

When the user inhales, a small amount of liquid is heated until it becomes a vapour.People who use E-cigarettes are therefore not smoking but “Vaping”

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

They don’t produce tar and carbon monoxide
There is greatly reduced, or no, fire risk
There is no smoky smell

Disadvantages:

They usually contain nicotine
They contain other poisons
They can cause passive vaping
They may not help quitting smoking