18 November
TOBACCO SMOKEOUT DAY
„Save the date” is a series of articles that have been written to celebrate various unusual holidays. The authors of the presented materials are students, doctoral students and employees of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Silesia.
18 November is celebrated as Tobacco Smokeout Day. That day is celebrated annually on the third Thursday of November. The initiator of the action was the American journalist Lynn Smith, who in 1974 appealed to the readers of his newspaper not to smoke for a one day.
fot. archiwum prywatne
Joanna Orzeł, PhD
Institute of Chemistry
How does smoking affect the human body? Is second-hand smoke more harmful than active smoking? How does your body react when you quit smoking?
Social awareness of the harmfulness of cigarette smoking is constantly growing. To the question: “Is smoking bad for our health?” certainly, most of the respondents will answer: “Definitely yes!” But why does tobacco smoke negatively affect our body? The reason is the toxic substances formed during the combustion of what the cigarette consists of, i.e. raw tobacco and the rolling paper it is wrapped in. While tobacco contains about 700 ingredients, when burned, it produces many thousands of them (sources give numbers from 4,000 to even 7,000) of which about 70 have been associated with cancer.
However, smoking carries with it more than “only” the risk of cancer. However, smoking carries with it more than “only” the risk of cancer. Regular “puffing of a smoke” can cause a whole list of diseases ranging from problems with the respiratory system (increased risk of pneumonia, bronchial asthma or COPD) and blood systems (e.g. narrowing of blood vessels or heart problems), by lowering fertility and body immunity, problems with teeth and recurrent mouth infections, to purely aesthetic, but often socially troublesome symptoms such as bad smell of hair, clothes or breath, or yellow fingers and wrinkle-prone skin.
Not only active smokers are exposed to the negative effects of inhaling tobacco smoke. People around them – passive smokers – are also at increased risk. According to WHO data, approximately 1.2 million premature deaths are caused by second-hand smoke. A particularly vulnerable group are children who are brought up in a “cloud of smoke” and they are constantly and unintentionally inhaling toxic substances. Research shows that the components of tobacco smoke persist in our respiratory system for some time, and even if the smoker does not smoke cigarettes directly in the company of the child, the very breath directed towards the child is the source of undesirable and poisonous ingredients.
The listed reasons seem to be sufficient to make every effort to quit smoking. As with any addiction, it is a difficult process and depends on the individual characteristics of the smoker. However, in general, it can be said that the decision to give up cigarettes will be associated with having a hard time. It is associated with cutting off the body from the main addictive substance – nicotine, and with the lack of regular activities, e.g. lack of keeping a cigarette in fingers or no regular trips to places designated for smoking. Quitters can face the classic symptoms of withdrawal syndrome – irritation, headaches and dizziness, uneven heartbeat, changes in appetite and mood. The results of the research from the University of Michigan are comforting, according to which, if we stick to the decision for 2 weeks, the chances of an irreversible goodbye to addiction increase by 30%.
DON’T SMOKE – IT’S NOT WORTH IT!!!