Smoking is, maybe, the worst mass-vice affecting our society for the tragic consequences that it can have on the health of smokers and of whoever is obliged to live near a smoker, at home or at work.

The first damage that cigarette smoking creates is in lungs; inside the pulmonary alveoli, (millions of microscopic sacks in which the exchange of oxygen and CO2 between air and blood occurs) the inner membrane is covered by microscopic flagella that prevent the deposit of solid particles present in the air.

Well, after having started smoking, these cells with flagella are soon destroyed by the great excess of solid coal particles of smoke and then, smoke can accumulate in the alveoli without any opposition.

So, the years pass and lungs are more and more filled and encrusted by smoke; many pulmonary cells die and leaving hollow spaces wider and wider inside lungs.
Lungs lose their breathing efficiency and, just for this, an habitual smoker have less resistance in running and every prolonged physical activity; doctors even say that smokers shouldn't make sport anymore, because their lungs can't follow them.

When I was at school, I watched one day with my class a documentary on the consequences of smoke that really impressed me, although I wasn't a smoker and I wasn't intentioned to start.
These consequences were clearly showed with the autopsy examinations on people died for lung cancer or respiratory insufficiency.
The sections of these lungs were in the largest part blackened with big hollow spaces, like coal mines. Just the great size of those holes were the one of the causes of the patient death.
That documentary was the most instructive thing of all that school year!

Then, the other great consequence of smoke is CANCER, due to the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAH, very present in smoke, that develops in lungs, in the respiratory ways and in the mouth (lips, tongue, larynx).
These cancers are, in most of cases, fatal, especially in lungs and the surgical solutions for throat are often very invalidating and disfiguring, when part of the jaw and tongue must be cut away.

Then, smoke damages the circulatory system, due to Nicotine action, increasing the coagulation of blood that can easily form occlusions in blood vessels, until the infarct.

Nicotine has also a DEPRESSIVE ACTION on the nervous system, slowing reflexes and this is particularly dangerous for car drivers, for ex., as showed by many researches.

Another common consequence of smoke is the CHRONIC BRONCHITIS.
Have you ever noticed that smokers cough frequently?

Learn more about this author, Aldo Bonincontro.
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