How do cigarettes damage health?

Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances.

When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins.

As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt.

The products that are most damaging are:

• tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)
• nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body

What are drugs and poisons?

Introduction

Drugs and poisons controlled under the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981 and the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Regulations 2006 (available on theVictorian Legislation and Parliamentary Documents website) are defined under the Act as being in the Poisons Code or in the Commonwealth Standard (Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Drugs and Poisons, Schedule 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 Poisons).

Only these defined substances are controlled. They include:

• prescription medicines
• pharmacy-only medicines

ALCOHOL’S DAMAGING EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN

ALCOHOL’S DAMAGING EFFECTS ON THE BRAIN Difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory: Clearly, alcohol affects the brain. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops. On the other hand, a person who drinks heavily over a long period of time may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety. Exactly how alcohol affects the brain and the likelihood of reversing the impact of heavy drinking on the brain remain hot topics in alcohol research today. We do know that heavy drinking may have extensive and far–reaching effects on the brain, ranging

Other risks caused by smoking

1. Smoking raises blood pressure, which can cause hypertension (high blood pressure) – a risk factor for heart attacks and stroke.
2. Couples who smoke are more likely to have fertility problems than couples who are non-smokers.
3. Smoking worsens asthma and counteracts asthma medication by worsening the inflammation of the airways that the medicine tries to ease.
4. The blood vessels in the eye are sensitive and can be easily damaged by smoke, causing a bloodshot appearance and itchiness.
5. Heavy smokers are twice as likely to get macular degeneration, resulting in the gradual loss of eyesight.
6. Smokers run an increased risk of cataracts.
7. Smokers take 25 per cent more sick days year than non-smokers.
8. Smoking stains your teeth and gums.
9. Smoking increases your risk of periodontal disease, which causes swollen gums, bad breath and teeth to fall out.
10. Smoking causes an acid taste in the mouth and contributes to the development of ulcers.
11. Smoking also affects your looks: smokers have paler skin and more wrinkles. This is because smoking reduces the blood supply to the skin and lowers levels of vitamin A.

Cancer

Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which hardly ever affect non-smokers.

The link between smoking and lung cancer is clear.
Ninety percent of lung cancer cases are due to smoking.
If no-one smoked, lung cancer would be a rare diagnosis – only 0.5 per cent of people who've never touched a cigarette develop lung cancer.
One in ten moderate smokers and almost one in five heavy smokers (more than 15 cigarettes a day) will die of lung cancer.

The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you've smoked, the higher your risk of lung cancer. Similarly, the risk rises the deeper you inhale and the earlier in life you started smoking.

For ex-smokers, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker.

If you smoke, the risk of contracting mouth cancer is four times higher than for a non-smoker. Cancer can start in many areas of the mouth, with the most common being on or underneath the tongue, or on the lips.