Warning against tobacco’s harms
A long list of cancers and diseases is imputable to the use of tobacco, lung cancer in head, but also cardiovascular and respiratory severe trouble.
Tobacco and cancer
Tobacco is the first known cause for:
- Lung cancer,
- Upper aero-digestive tract cancers affecting different organs (mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus),
- Bladder cancer,
- Pancreas cancer,
and is also partly responsible for most cancers of the urinary tract and kidneys, the cervical, the stomach, the pancreas... only by eliminating tobacco, the deaths due to cancer would drop by a third!
Tobacco and cardiovascular diseases
Tobacco is the worst enemy of the heart and the blood vessels. It prepares the ground to heart attacks and particularly to myocardial infarction, mainly by accelerating the vascular ageing and increasing the frequency of the strokes or cerebrovascular accidents (CVA).
Tobacco and lung affections
The chronic bronchitis, very frequent to the smokers, ends in a progressive deterioration of the respiratory function. The waking-up morning cough and the breathlessness in effort are the main alarms. As for the asthmatics, the tobacco is a worsening factor.
Woman and tobacco: harmful effects
The tobacco affects the fertility, acts on the feminine hormonal balance and disturbs the cycle of the woman who smokes. The contraceptive pill would never be prescribed to smokers over 35 years because of the risks of cardiovascular accidents. The tobacco is cause of early menopause and increases the risk of osteoporosis. Furthermore, the therapeutic effect of the menopause replacement therapies is decreased.
Second-hand smokers: passive smoking
The negative effects of the passive smoking on the non-smokers’ health are now proved and much better known. The damages are beyond doubt for smokers’ kids and children, who become susceptible hosts to respiratory and ENT infections (nasopharyngitis, earache), asthma and chronic respiratory trouble. As to the adults, the passive smoking seems to be one of the most important risk factors leading to cardiovascular diseases or lung cancers.
