Tobacco and Cigarette Smoking

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Recommended: Tobacco use as a public health concern

One person dies every six seconds due to a tobacco related disease, which results in a shocking amount of ten deaths per minute. Tobacco is one of the most heavily used addictive products in the United States. Tobacco contains over 4,000 chemicals; approximately 250 are dangerously harmful to humans. Smoking is a major public health problem. All smokers face an increased risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular problems and many other disorders. Smoking should be banned due to the many health risks to the user, second hand related smoke illness, and excessive cost.
Cigarette makers know that nicotine addiction helps sell their products. Nicotine is the main ingredient in tobacco that causes addiction. Nicotine activates the parts of the brain that control feelings and pleasure. It only takes minutes for the effects of nicotine to disappear causing the smoker to take another puff to keep feeling good. (Junior Scholastic, 2006) When you utilize tobacco products, nicotine is expeditiously absorbed into your bloodstream. Within 10 seconds of entering your body, the nicotine reaches your brain. It causes the brain to relinquish adrenaline, engendering a buzz of pleasure and energy. The buzz fades expeditiously though, and leaves you feeling tired, a little down, and wanting the buzz again. This will result in lighting up another cigarette. Since your body is able to build up a high tolerance to nicotine, you’ll need to smoke more and more cigarettes to receive nicotine’s pleasurable effects and obviate withdrawal symptoms. This cycle will only continue to repeat resulting in addiction. Although for many once they’ve reached this point it seems almost impossible to quit smoking even when they want to. ("Nicotine and Tobacco Add...

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...factsheet/Tobacco/ETS
Smokers Cost Employers Thousands More Than Nonsmokers – WebMD. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20130604/smokers-cost-employers-thousands-more-than-nonsmokers
Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction | Be Tobacco Free.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://betobaccofree.hhs.gov/health-effects/nicotine-health/index.html
Tobacco | NIDA for Teens. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://teens.drugabuse.gov/drug-facts/tobacco
Banning Cigarettes. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.smokingaloud.com/ban-cigarettes.html http://www.cancer.org/healthy/toolsandcalculators/calculators/app/smoking-cost-calculator.aspx Tobacco Smoke | Radiation Protection | US EPA. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/tobacco.html
What is nicotine? - Medical News Today. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240820.php

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