Cigarettes And Nicotine

Smoking is the act of breathing in the smoke produced by burning tobacco either in cigarettes, cigars or pipes. Smoking was introduced to the European culture by explorers such as Christopher Columbus, the practice soon spread across the globe. Smoking (2017) describes the use of tobacco products in the early 20th century as medicinal. Health practitioners believed smoking would aid in elevating the disposition, concentration and productivity of their patients. However, by the early 21st century the converse to this theory had been proven. Smoking had been identified as one of the leading causes of mortality and disease globally. Smoking is still widespread today, although there are many religious, social and medical discussions against it.

     In the world today, Nicotine is one of the most frequently used addictive drugs. The impact it has on society is like no other. It is one of more than 4,000 chemicals found in the smoke of tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. This addictive drug is the primary component in tobacco that acts on the brain.

Along with the benefits listed above, nicotine is a substance that can be harmful when

Cancer is known killer of many people and it is hard to control or stop. Another type of life-threatening disease that is associated with tobacco use is heart disease. With heart disease there are only three things that I personally know of to solve the problem. They are to get a heart transplant, wait to see if you get better, or to just die. It’s just a fact that nicotine has fatal consequences.

The addiction to tobacco, nicotine, and smoking is something the humans have embraced and battled since the early 1800’s. With more and more people falling into the habit and becoming addicted, many detrimental health effects on the body caused people to question what was going on and what was causing these negative reactions in the body. Soon enough, the healthy and “cool” cigarettes that everyone was smoking became the face of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, birth defects, and many other deadly bodily reactions. In the early 2000’s electronic cigarettes (ECs) were developed by a Chinese pharmacist that hoped to allow smokers to maintain their nicotine addiction, but limit or end the harmful and detrimental effects of tobacco on the body, due to his father’s death of tobacco-attributable lung cancer.1 A typical EC consists of a rechargeable lithium battery, a heating tool called an atomizer, which vaporizes a humectant (typically propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and/or polyethylene glycol 400). The humectant contains liquid nicotine. When the smoker inhales, the heating tool is activated by an airflow sensor, and the nicotine is vaporized.1 2

E-cigarettes have exploded onto the scene in the past three years. Whole stores dedicated to these devices have opened their doors to the public and business is thriving. E-cigarettes are battery-charged devices that have an atomizer, or heating element, in them to vaporize liquid nicotine. The user is able to inhale this vapor and get the nicotine without the other 4,000 chemicals present in tobacco cigarette smoke (Schroeder). Nicotine is a chemical that is produced by the tobacco plant. People have discovered that by smoking the leaves of a tobacco plant the nicotine in the leaves is delivered into the bloodstream. Nicotine by itself is not an awful drug as far as drugs go, although it is highly addictive, it is the tar in cigarettes that does so much damage. Tobacco use remains the number one preventable cause of death in the U.S. with 480,000 Americans dying prematurely from tobacco related disease. Kicking this habit remains difficult for most (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Mark Twain once wrote “It’s easy to quit smoking, I’ve done it hundreds of times.”

The intake of Nicotine is unhealthy and may produce symptoms that affect the users overall health. The way nicotine is entering the body

A Tobacco plant is made up of approximately 5 percent of nicotine by weight. There are two categories of tobacco products cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Nicotine has many effects on the body but the effect it has on the brain is responsible for the so called “good feeling” that is behind the addiction. Nicotine is considered to be addictive because of the psychological and physiological effects on a person. The Center for the Advancement of Health published the results of a study on teenager smokers:

Most cigarettes have eight to nine mg of nicotine, though only one mg is transferred to the smoker. Nicotine increases the heart rate, raises the blood pressure and causes blood clotting to the smoker. The most important fact about nicotine is that it has no medical value. Other drugs like marijuana, heroine, and cocaine have no medical value as well but for some reason, cigarettes are legal in the US. An interesting fact that many people do not know is that nicotine, the addicting drug in cigarettes, is more addicting then marijuana, heroine, and cocaine. There has not been one reported death due to marijuana. In 1988, the U.S. Surgeon General reported that nicotine is just as addictive as heroin and cocaine. A "hit" of nicotine reaches the brain in seven seconds, twice as fast as heroin injected into the vein. And still the cigarette is still legal.

Also, the main reason these smokeless tobacco products are so dangerous is because of the all the hazardous chemicals found inside them, such as nicotine. Nicotine is a chemical found in all tobacco products that has many health effects on the human body. The difference between cigarette users, who inhale nicotine-containing smoke into the lungs, and smokeless users is that they absorb the chemicals through their oral cavities, getting nicotine to eventually travel into their bloodstreams. (Julie 1). As a matter of fact, “users [of smokeless tobacco] generally absorb more nicotine from smokeless tobacco products than from cigarettes” (Julie 2). If more people were aware of this fact, they would definitely think twice before chewing/dipping again. When individuals buy any smokeless tobacco product on the market, they are also unknowingly purchasing the many deadly chemicals that come with it.

Nicotine is a substance that can be addictive, both physical and psychological. The smoker develops tolerance to nicotine and, consequently, requires a greater amount of cigarettes and a more frequent use. Typical is the case of a smoker who craves to smoke the first cigarette in the morning, just awaken, because he’s coming from a withdrawal night. But in the Josephine’s case, who smokes only a few cigarettes a day, the dependence seems mainly related to psychological aspects: smoking has become a way to manage stress and to enjoy celebration and fun with friends.

Additionally, nicotine tightens the blood vessels which slows down blood flow. The health effects of smoking are frightfully damaging and in many cases, deadly. The chemicals in tobacco smoke are breathed in into the lungs and then travel throughout the body.

A multivariate analysis was carried out on the data accumulated during the course of the study which included those who have used inhalant drugs and those who were unemployed with current smoking (Shirley et al., 2013). The study revealed that unemployment and use of other drugs was found more common and higher among current smokers in comparison to former and nonsmokers. Key findings of the study included that there was a direct relationship between those with a low level of education and the individuals who received lower income in comparison were less likely to quit smoking (Shirley et al., 2013). The study also revealed that HIV-positive patients possessed a higher prevalence of overuse of concomitant substance, and with smoking combined and their weakened immune system required special attention.

The simple smoke from a cigarette is more complex then it really looks. "Each time a person breaths in smoke about a million particles of very tiny complex materials are breathed in and only 20% of that is breathed out."(Hyde 1990) From these little millions of particles is the reason it causes problems for the human body. The main material in the some is nicotine. "Nicotine is an alkaloid poison found in

Smoking is a habit that exists in a significant number of the global population. On the global scale, nearly 1.1 billion people practice the habit or ⅓ of the adult population. The most appropriate explanation for the existence of this problem is social learning. Many smokers develop the habit primarily due to the influence of social settings. Some cultural rituals around the world promote smoking tobacco among adults especially the men in the community (Brewer, Elwafi, & Davis, 2013). In the modernized settings, individuals will usually engage in smoking while offering or sharing a cigarette with another. This practice is used merely as a means of striking up a friendly conversation with a