Essay On Cigarette Smoking

860 Words4 Pages
Every year approximately 4.9 million people worldwide die because of smoking. Deaths caused by alcohol, car accidents, suicide and AIDS combined are actually less than the number of deaths caused by cigarette smoking. But what is cigarette smoking? What is its history? What effects does it have? And Why? Cigarette smoking is a mixture of gases and of small particles made up of water, tar, and nicotine. A single cigarette stick contains more than 4000 of harmful chemicals, each having toxic effects on your body. The tar is a mixture of thousands of toxic chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer. These gases are harmful to the human body, they include carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, and other toxic irritants, which primarily cause disruptions in the proper functioning of the lungs and cause deficiencies in the rest of the respiratory system. Aside from the tar in cigarettes there is also another very potent and harmful chemical called Nicotine. Nicotine is the cause of addiction, it is a psychoactive drug - a drug which…show more content…
But after World War II more independence was brought for women, which caused many of them to go to work, and led them to start smoking. By 1944 cigarette production was up to 300 billion a year. Millions of dollars were made by selling cigarettes in the U.S. and all over the world. In 1964 a report on the dangers of cigarette smoking was written by the Surgeon General of the U.S. (the chief doctor for the country). He said that nicotine and tar present in cigarettes causes lung cancer, and after a year this led to the Congress of the U.S. passing the Cigarette Labelling and Advertising Act, and every cigarette pack had a warning label on its side stating ”Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health. " By the 1980’s, tobacco companies had come out with new brands of cigarettes with lower amounts of tar and nicotine and improved filters to keep their customers buying and to reduce their
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