Effect of Smoking

 Topic: Smoking

Subtopic 1: Effects of Smoking

1.1 Cardiovascular disease

First and foremost, it is clear that smoking can damage people’s cardiovascular function (Papathanasiou, Mamali, Papafloratos, &Zerva, 2014). There are more than 4000 chemical elements which are injurious to cardiovascular function, such as nicotine, tar and CO (Bullen, as cited in Papathanasiou et al., 2014). These substances can cause a stroke by blocking the blood flow, which finally results in cardiovascular disease (Hayes, 2011). Interestingly, Duaso and Duncan (2012) observe that community nurses promptly stop patients smoking when they get other dangerous factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and overweight. As a result, the risk of having cardiovascular disease will decreased.

1.2 Pregnancy

In addition, smoking can also cause reproductive effects which are very serious to newlyweds. According to Hawsawi, Bryant and Goodfellow (2015), long time exposure to second-hand smoking will lead to low birth weight, and this can influence mothers’ and infants’ health. Similarly, through making a microsimulation model by using different ages, sexs, and races, researcher found that smoking can decline fertility rates, and consequently, the population will also decrease in the future if people do not take some actions to stop smoking (Akushevich, Kravchenko, and Manton, 2007). Moreover, a report by Galloway (2012) found that if people smoke during pregnancy, it will increase the risk of miscarriage, complications during labour, premature birth and stillbirth. For example, children especially will get the high risk to have respiratory illnesses in the early age if their mothers smoke during pregnancy (Galloway, 2012). So, smoking will not only be harmful to mothers but also to their child.

1.3 Cancer

Furthermore, one of the most significant effects is cancer which can directly cause death. There are two major cancers that smokers usually suffer from, one is lung cancer which means the body cannot control the growth of cells in the lung, and another is the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which means most of them will die prematurely if they do not stop smoking (Hayes, 2011). Besides these two kinds of cancers, there are also some other serious cancers which can be caused by smoking, such as larynx carcinoma, cancer of oral cavity and pharynx and paranasal sinuses (International Agency for Research on Cancer, as cited in Duaso and Duncan, 2012).  Once people start smoking, the risk of having cancer will dramatically increase.