What many tobacco users get after years of smoking are a number of physiological diseases such as heart disease, lung cancer, larynx cancer, mouth cancer, eye irritations, brain dysfunction due to nicotine addiction, emphysema, and the list goes on.
It isn’t very pleasant and when you think about it the act of smoking isn’t very pleasant either. You stick this thing in your mouth, light the end and puff away. While you are introducing over 4,000 dangerous cancer giving chemicals to your body you are making yourself and your clothes smell like a dirty old ashtray, turning your fingers yellow and burning money. If anybody wants to get close to you your hair will stink and kissing you will be unpleasant for non smokers. It used to look cool many years ago, now anybody who smokes looks more like a fool. Let’s see just what tobacco is:
Tobacco is a plant grown in warm climates and processed to be used as a main ingredient in traditional cigarettes. Tobacco comes from the genus plant Nicotiana. This plant is commonly used as an organic pesticide. When nicotiana is processed in an organic matter called nicotine tartrate, it becomes a medicinal substance.
The most common form of tobacco usage is in smoking, chewing, dipping tobacco or snuff. Tobacco is also a psychoactive substance often used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context. After the arrival of Europeans in North America, tobacco became popular as a recreational drug which helped develop the economy of the southern United States until it was replaced by cotton.
There are many species of tobacco plants under the genus Nicotiana. The word nicotine was derived from the plant nicotiana named after its discoverer Jean Nicot.
As early as 1559, people became dependent and nicotine was classed as addictive substance. Addictive properties of nicotine are deemed to be directly dependent on quantity, speed, and frequency of absorption of tobacco in the body via different ways of consumption such as inhalation and chewing.
Tobacco use has been practiced by more than a billion people and up to 1/3 of the world’s adult population. Today, tobacco smoking is considered the leading cause of deaths of 5.4 million individuals per year. The major component of tobacco considered highly toxic and prime contributor of chemical imbalance in the body is nicotine. Nicotine causes chemical disturbance therefore altering a number of chemical messengers or neurotransmitters in the brain. For instance the acetylcholine and norepinephrine are responsible for the change of the moods.
Short puffing can give a relaxing sensation while deep and long puffing of cigarette gives relief sensation from pain. This is due to the increase in nicotine that affects the levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine.
Like any other agricultural products, tobacco is also cultivated by sowing its seeds in cold frames or hotbeds to prevent attacks from insects which then transplanted into the fields. Tobacco is an annual crop that is harvested to be stored for curing and then packed into its various forms for consumption and consumption that kills.
The British government announced that they intend to cut smoking by at least one half by 2020. Apart from offering more help, suggested measures include banning smoking at entrances to buildings, stripping logos, graphics and colours off cigarette packets and banning the sale of them from vending machines.
After seeing the harm that smoking does I wish that they would ban the sale of tobacco products altogether. It’s horrifying when you think that this nasty, smelly habit is responsible for up to 80,000 lives being stubbed out every year in Britain alone, and the leading cause of preventable deaths. Tobacco is a serial killer and we actually pay for the dubious pleasure of risking our lives – crazy isn’t it.
Would you like to know how I stopped smoking and easily after 40 years? Check out my stop smoking diary at http://smokersstop.co.uk and the stop smoking forum where you can find help and support.
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