Effects of Smoking

Information About Smoking:

A Guide for Teens

Do you smoke? Have you ever stopped to think about how smoking is affecting your body and your life? Most teens are aware that people who have smoked for awhile can get lung cancer and emphysema and eventually die, but many don't know about all of the bad things that smoking can to them right now. If you smoke, you owe it to yourself to find out about the effects of smoking on your life now. This guide provides some information about what smoking is doing to your body and some of the common reasons why people keep smoking even though they know it's bad for them. These are important things to think about to help you decide if you should continue smoking.

Why is cigarette smoking bad for me?

Everyone knows that smoking can cause cancer when you get older, but did you know that it also has bad effects on your body right now? A cigarette contains about 4000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous. Some of the worst ones are:

* Nicotine: a deadly poison

* Arsenic: used in rat poison

* Methane: a component of rocket fuel

* Ammonia: found in floor cleaner

* Cadmium: used in batteries

* Carbon Monoxide: part of car exhaust

* Formaldehyde: used to preserve body tissue

* Butane: lighter fluid

* Hydrogen Cyanide: the poison used in gas chambers

Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, small amounts of these chemicals get into your blood through your lungs. They travel to all the parts of your body and cause harm.

What do all these chemicals do to my body?

As you might imagine, even small amounts of the poisonous chemicals in cigarettes can do bad things to your body. Here are some facts about what smoking cigarettes does to you:

* Smoking makes you smell bad, gives you wrinkles, stains your teeth, and gives you bad breath.

* Smokers get 3 times more cavities than non-smokers.

* Smoking lowers your hormone levels.

* When smokers catch a cold, they are more likely than non-smokers to have a cough that lasts a long time. They are also more likely than non-smokers to get bronchitis and pneumonia.

* Teen smokers have smaller lungs and a weaker heart than teen non-smokers. They also get sick more often than teens who don't smoke.

What happens to my lungs when I smoke?

Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, you kill some of the air sacks in your lungs, called alveoli. These air sacks are where the oxygen that you breathe in is transferred into your blood. Alveoli don't grow back, so when you destroy them, you have permanently destroyed part of your lungs. This means that you won't do as well in activities where breathing is important, like sports, dancing, or singing.

Smoking