Quit Now, Live Longer, Live Happier

Quit Now, Live Longer, Live Happier

            For those smoking out in the world that have a hard time with them themselves while having conflicting thoughts about quitting smoking should know that quitting is worth it. Many people who are smoking nowadays are unaware of what hazardous materials found within these cigarettes; chemicals such as benzene, formaldehyde, and acetone are inhaled instantly when inhaling on a lighted cigarette.  People are risking their health, life, and their loved ones or pet by smoking.

            Lives are continuously lost everyday due to the effects of smoking and secondhand smoking. Some main affects on the body are lung cancer, heart cancer, and many more. Research from livestrong.com has shown that 87 percent of deaths caused by lung cancer are from the chemicals that surface within a cigarette. Though lung cancer may be one of the most causes of death from smoking there are a multitude of different types of cancer that are caused from smoking such as bladder cancer, esophageal cancer, and many more. So, do not think that only lungs will be affected but body parts such as the bladder, esophagus, and even the liver can and will be affected by smoking and secondhand smokes. Is it worth it to smoke knowing that in return a person will be dying a slow and painful death? Of course it’s not, that is why it is important to stop right now.

References:

“How Does Your Health Improve After You Quit Smoking? | LIVESTRONG.COM."LIVESTRONG.COM - Lose Weight & Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools | LIVESTRONG.COM. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/35821-health-improve-after-quit-smoking/>.

"Cancer Statistics Smoking and Cancer Statistics." Quit Smoking | Quit Smoking Support | Smoking Cessation. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. <http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tobaccostatistics/a/cancerstats.htm>.

Peer pressure regarding Youth Smoking

Peer pressure is the influence given from another to do something. This topic is about smoking and how peer pressure falls into this category.

One of the reasons Youth smoke nowadays is because of peer pressure from friends. Youth are easily influence by friends and role models. Youth come up with reasons such as not wanting to lose friends, trying to be cool, to lose weight and to be independent. About 1 in 5 middle school students begins smoking everyday. The smoking rate among kids who have three or more friends who smoke is 10 times higher than the rate among kids who report that none of their friends smoke. This fact gives support to the fact that peer pressure is a huge factor in influencing youth to smoke. The worse thing when using tobacco at a young age is that youth are more prone to become addicted to tobacco usage.

There needs to be more concern about this topic to help these prevent these students from falling into tobacco influence from negative peer pressure. Programs and schools should implement more activities or programs to help prevent negative peer pressure from happening. There are many things that we can do as a society to prevent these things from happening, but this needs to be looked upon because peer pressure is very dangerous and can affect our future generations.

Peer pressure is not the only factor to a developing youth society of smoking it is all in the act of psychological matters. During the teen years of a youth life they develop the act of anarchistic feelings towards their peers. Stress and the feeling of fitting in become part of that youth’s life. They find it difficult to choose who they follow and who they listen too. Youth are going through a multitude of problems that consist of trying to lose weight, being independent, or trying to find their place. Smoking tends to be they way to relieve all that stress a youth faces through day in and day out. But there are healthier ways of developing a consensus to this problem.   

These are many ways that we as a society can change the ways these youth think and how they act as peers towards each other. Though youth are rebellious they are always open to become more empowered because they are still young and curious. If there are programs to teach these youth to correctly decide what is wrong and what is correct than in no doubt they will be more aware of the choices they make. We cannot stop all the things that happen to the youth be we can take small steps to empower and teach them to embrace their lives more than puffing a cigarette.

References:

 http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/smoking.html

http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/docs/tobacco/Unit3/1why_people_smoke.html

The Health Effects of Smoking on Teens Pregnant

Smoking cigarettes is bad for you, especially when you’re pregnant. The smoke from the cigarette contains more than 4,000 chemicals; including truly nasty things like propylene glycol, toluene, arsenic, butane, acetone, cadmium, lead, and ammonia.

A shortage of oxygen can have devastating effects on your baby’s growth and development. On average, smoking during pregnancy doubles the chances that a baby will be born too early or weigh less than 4 pounds at birth. Undersize babies tend to have underdeveloped bodies. Their lungs may not be ready to work on their own, which means they may spend their first days or weeks attached to a respirator. Babies whose mother smoked in the first trimester of pregnancy are more likely to have a heart defect at birth, and can have lifelong effects on baby’s brain too.

"How Smoking during Pregnancy Affects You and Your Baby | BabyCenter." BabyCenter | Homepage - Pregnancy, Baby, Toddler, Kids. Web. 31 Oct. 2011. <http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-smoking-during-pregnancy-affects-you-and-your-baby_1405720.bc>.

Tobacco-Free Policy

What is a policy?

-A Policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome.

-A Policy can be considered as a “Statement of Intent” or a “Commitment”. For that reason at least, we can be held accountable for our “Policy”

Why policy is important?

POLICY is important because it allows people, workers, work places, organizations, or business to understand and be responsible for the rules and regulations. Avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding.

Why is tobacco-free policy is important?

Tobacco-free policy is important because it prevents second-hand smoke, creates safe and healthy environments that eliminate tobacco use by anyone, and protects other from the exposure of tobacco products. Also helps reduce medical cost related to tobacco-related diseases, lower health, life, and disability and medical coverage.

Secondhand Smoke

The Science behind the Risks

Surgeon General Warning: Secondhand Smoke Puts Children At Risk 

Secondhand smoke is also known as environmental tobacco smoke. It is a mixture of 2 forms of smoke that come from burning tobacco. When non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke it is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Non-smokers who breathe in secondhand smoke take in nicotine and other toxic chemicals just like smokers do. The more secondhand smoke you are exposed to, the higher the level of these harmful chemicals in your body. There are over 4000 chemical compounds in secondhand smoke; 200 of which are known to be poisonous, and at least 60 have been identified as carcinogens.

Serious Health Risks to Children

Children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke because they are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and have little control over their indoor environments. Children exposed to high doses of secondhand smoke, such as those whose mothers smoke, run the greatest relative risk of experiencing damaging health effects.

Health Effects from the secondhand smoke:

·     Exposure to secondhand smoke can trigger asthma attacks and make asthma symptoms more severe.

·     Exposure to secondhand smoke can cause asthma in children who have not previously exhibited symptoms.

·     Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

·     Children who regularly breathe secondhand smoke are at increased risk for middle ear infections.

Get more information on "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General" at www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/

Health Effect Related to Tobacco Usage

The fact is Tobacco Kills! The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States.
Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.2,--combined!!!





Health effects related from tobacco used:
-Gum disease; it turns gums black with white spots, and cause gums to be swollen, bleed easily, and make your teeth ugly.
-Heart Disease; This disease is common among people who smoke. The carbon monoxide found in cigarette smoke reduces the amount of oxygen in blood, which makes the heart beat faster. A faster heart rate combine with high blood pressure can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
-asthma; it causes inflammation within the main airway  of the lungs making it harder to breath
-Lung cancer; This kills more people than any other cancer. Smoking is the number one causing lung cancer.
Other health related effects from smoking are :
- loss of taste and smell
- stained teeth; tobacco products cause plaque buildup on teeth, which can be removed only with professional cleaning.
- stained fingernails; fingernails turn yellow
- loss of eye sight
- high blood pressure
- increases the risk of diabetes




Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men
And for women did you know 80% of all lung cancer deaths is caused by smoking?
- men developing lung cancer by 23 times higher than women