Ch. 17.2: Smoking and Your Health

17.2.1 What harmful chemicals are found in tobacco smoke?

Chemicals in Tobacco Smoke

• Deadly chemicals in Tobacco:– Tar– Carbon Monoxide– Nicotine

Tar

• A dark sticky substance that forms when tobacco is burned.

• Tar clumps up in the lungs when inhaled.• It causes lungs to turn a dark color.

Carbon Monoxide

• A colorless, odorless (no smell) gas.• It is dangerous because it sticks to blood

instead of oxygen and then doesn’t let go!• You end up suffocating.

Nicotine

• A stimulant drug that is addictive.• This is why smokers have trouble quitting. • NEVER START!

17.2.2 How can tobacco smoke affect a person’s health over time?

Health Problems and Smoking

• It burns the cilia (little hairs that move mucus out of the lungs so you don’t choke on it).

• Too much mucus prevents oxygen from getting to the lungs.

• Over time, you can get breathing diseases:– Chronic Bronchitis– Emphysema– Lung Cancer– Artherosclerosis

Chronic Bronchitis

• Bronchitis is the swelling of the bronchi.• Sometimes, its so bad, it closes up and you

can’t breathe.• Chronic means it is all the time and never goes

away.

Emphysema

• Emphysema is a serious disease that destroys lung tissue and SERIOUS difficulty in breathing.

• It is PERMANENT.

Lung Cancer

• About 140,000 Americans die each year from lung cancer related to smoking.

• Cigarette smoke contains more than 50 cancer causing chemicals.

• Cancer in the lungs takes away space for breathing.

• It is rarely caught in time and has a high fatality rate.

Atherosclerosis

• The chemicals in smoke also harm the Circulatory System.

• Some of these chemicals are absorbed into the blood.

• These chemicals also make blood vessels swell (like bronchitis) and then fatty materials get stuck to it leading to heart attacks.

• Smokers are 2x more likely to have heart attacks than non-smokers.