Smoking
There are approximately 50 million smokers in the United States.⁵³ More than 85% of them want to quit this terrible addiction,⁵⁴ and 40 million Americans have already kicked the habit.⁵⁵
Everyone knows smoking can be hazardous to health and can cause cancer, as the Surgeon General has stamped this statement on every packet of cigarettes. Let us look at the harm that smoking can really cause:
• Cancer. Tobacco smoke is made up of a wide array of harmful substances, many of which are carcinogenic. Some of them include benzopyrenes, formaldehyde, nitrosamines, hydrogen cyanide, aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, and polonium 210 (a radioactive element).⁵⁶ Lung cancer is the No. 1 killing cancer today, and if you smoke two packs of cigarettes a day you increase your risk of contracting it by 15 to 25 times. Even one pack a day is likely to cut your life short by at least seven years.⁵⁷ The World Health Organization states that almost 400,000 Americans die each year because of smoking.⁵⁸
• Heart disease. The nicotine in tobacco smoke stimulates the adrenal glands to secrete adrenaline, which is your fight, fright, or flight hormone. Adrenaline causes the heart to work harder and need more oxygen. Tobacco smoke contains carbon monoxide, which replaces the oxygen molecule in the red blood cell, causing oxygen deprivation.⁵⁹
• Chronic fatigue. Because the heart is overworked and oxygen is replaced by carbon monoxide, it takes more and more energy for the body to do simple functions. This oxygen debt is extremely debilitating for people who have chronic fatigue, because in this disease the person already has a cellular metabolism which can produce only about 50% of the energy normally required for cellular function. These people get worse with exercise, because the body bounces back from the energy drain very slowly. An analogy is a very slow rechargeable battery. It takes a long time for the body to recharge, so it runs on low energy, resulting in significant problems. Smoking just destroys what little recharging ability their bodies have.
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This includes many lung problems like emphysema, asthma and bronchitis, most of which will eventually decrease life span and greatly decreases quality of life. If you have ever seen a friend or family member hooked up to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day, you know what I mean.
• Secondhand or passive smoke. In 1986, the eyes of the American people were opened to this health hazard when the U.S. Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, wrote a report entitled The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking. In the report, secondhand or passive smoke was classified as even more harmful than primary smoke.⁶⁰ Passive smoke has been shown to contain twice the tar and nicotine and five times as much carbon monoxide as mainstream smoke. Also, nonsmokers sitting in a smoke-filled room inhale more than twice as long as those who are smoking.⁶¹ In 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency stated that 53,000 non-smokers are killed every year due to the inhalation of passive smoke.⁶² Children who live with smoking parents have a greater chance of developing respiratory diseases like asthma, pneumonia, and bronchitis.⁶³
The devastating effects of smoking can be summed up by the following statements: “Cigarette smoking is the largest preventable public health problem currently existing in the United States” (Committee on Cigarette Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease.) “Smoking-related diseases are such important causes of disability and premature death in developed countries that the combat of cigarette smoking could do more to improve health and prolong life in these countries than any other single action in the whole field of preventative medicine” (World Health Organization.)⁶⁴

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