You know that cigarettes have a major effect on the lungs. About a third of all cancers are caused by smoking. For example, it can affect breathing and cause shortness of breath and coughing. Furthermore, it also increases the risk of respiratory tract infection, which ultimately reduces the quality of life.
In addition to these serious health consequences, smoking also affects a person’s well-being. It changes to smell and taste. Furthermore, it also reduces the ability to perform physical exercises.
Now here is a list of 10 in-depth reasons why you should say no to tobacco and keep this stick away. Let’s go!
1. Tobacco pollutes the environment:
Governments and local authorities pay for cleaning up tobacco waste, not the tobacco companies themselves. Quit tobacco to protect the environment. Cigarette butts are among the most commonly discarded litter in the world and are the most common litter collected on beaches and water’s edges around the world.
Hazardous substances have been identified in cigarette butts including arsenic, lead, nicotine, and formaldehyde. These substances are leached from discarded butts into the aquatic environment and soil. Tobacco smoke can contribute measurably to the level of air pollution in a city.
A single tobacco smoker could contribute more than 24,000 metric tons of methane or 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the planet annually. E-cigarettes and heated tobacco products may contain batteries that require special disposal, as well as chemicals, packaging, and other non-biodegradable materials.
Also, Read Top 8 Mental Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Currently, most plastic e-cigarette refills are not reusable or recyclable and multinationals tend to sell disposables, presumably to increase sales through repeat customers.
2. Using tobacco and nicotine harms your baby:
Tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy increase the risk of fetal death. Women who smoke or are exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy are at increased risk of miscarriage.
Stillbirths that is births of fetuses that have died in the womb are also more common due to fetal oxygen deprivation and placental abnormalities induced by carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke and nicotine in tobacco smoke and smokeless tobacco.
Female smokers are at higher risk of ectopic pregnancy, a potentially fatal complication for the mother in which a fertilized egg attaches itself outside the uterus. Babies born to women who smoke, use smokeless tobacco, or are exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy have a higher risk of preterm birth and low birth weight.
Also Read: What are the 10 Different Types of Pregnancy?
3. Say No to Tobacco: Tobacco causes more than 20 types of cancer:
Smoking and use of smokeless tobacco cause cancer of the mouth, lips, throat, pharynx and larynx, and esophagus. Surgical removal of a cancerous larynx may require a tracheostomy, an opening in the throat, and a windpipe that allows the patient to breathe.
Smokers have a significantly higher risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia; cancer of the nasal and paranasal sinuses; colorectal, kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, or ovarian cancer; and cancer of the lower urinary tract. It is also known to increase the risk of cervical cancer in women infected with human papillomavirus.
Also, Read What are the 7 Major Sexually Transmitted Infections – STIs
4. Smokers are more likely to lose their sight and hearing:
Smoking causes many eye diseases that, if left untreated, can lead to permanent vision loss. Smokers are more likely than non-smokers to develop age-related macular degeneration, a condition that leads to irreversible vision loss.
Smokers also have a higher risk of cataracts, a clouding of the eye’s lens that blocks light. Cataracts cause vision impairment and surgery is the only option to restore vision.
Some evidence suggests that smoking also causes glaucoma, a condition that increases pressure in the eye and can damage vision. Adult smokers are more likely to suffer from hearing loss.
5. Tobacco damages almost every organ in the body:
Lifetime tobacco smokers lose an average of at least 10 years of life. With every puff of a cigarette, toxins, and carcinogens enter the body, with at least 70 chemicals known to cause cancer.
The risk of developing diabetes is higher in smokers. Smoking is a risk factor for dementia, a group of disorders that lead to mental decline. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and an estimated 14% of Alzheimer’s cases worldwide can be attributed to smoking.
6. Smoking and Menopause:
Women who smoke are more likely to experience painful periods and more severe menopausal symptoms. Menopause occurs 1-4 years earlier in female smokers because smoking reduces egg production in the ovaries, resulting in loss of reproductive function and subsequent low estrogen levels.
In addition, tobacco smokers are at significantly higher risk of postoperative complications than nonsmokers.
7. Tobacco smoke reduces the supply of oxygen to body tissues:
Tobacco use restricts blood flow, which, if left untreated, can lead to gangrene or death of body tissue and amputation of affected areas.
Tobacco use increases the risk of periodontal disease, a chronic inflammatory disease that wears down the gums and destroys the jawbone, leading to tooth loss.
8. E-cigarettes are harmful and unsafe:
The secret is out: the tobacco industry targets the vulnerable. Children and teens who use e-cigarettes at least double their chances of smoking cigarettes later in life.
Using e-cigarettes increases the risk of heart disease and lung disease. Nicotine in e-cigarettes is a highly addictive drug that can harm children’s developing brains.
9. Tobacco costs your quality time:
You want to be a good example for your children, friends, and loved ones. Tobacco use can negatively affect social interactions and relationships.
Quitting means there are no restrictions on where you can go – you can socialize without feeling isolated or having to go outside to smoke. When you quit, you can be more productive – you won’t have to stop what you’re doing to smoke all the time. Chewing tobacco can also cause mouth cancer, tooth loss, brown teeth, white spots, and gum disease, making you less approachable.
10. Say No to Tobacco: Smoking Reduces Your Fertility:
Smokers are more likely to experience infertility. Quitting smoking and reduces problems with pregnancy, premature births, low birth weight babies, and miscarriages.
It also can cause erectile dysfunction by restricting blood flow to the penis and causing the inability to achieve an erection. Erectile dysfunction is more common in smokers and is very likely to persist or become permanent if a man does not stop smoking early in life.
Again, smoking also reduces sperm count, motility, and sperm shape in men.
So, say no to tobacco and yes to health!
Also, Read 10 REASONS FOR POOR SPERM QUALITY IN MEN
