Smoking is dangerous to your health: The rationale behind the warning

There's no other way to say it. Smoking is dangerous to your health. This warning is written in every cigarette pack every smoker consumes but, over time, has lost its effect and value. According to QuitsmokingHub, about 1.35 billion people worldwide are smokers. In Asia alone, 9.6% are smokers. And five million deaths recorded around the world yearly are caused by smoking. Composition of a cigarette

Aside from nicotine, which is an addictive drug found in cigarettes, there are many more cigarette ingredients that even smokers do not know about. QuitsmokingHub has named seven human carcinogens found in cigarettes. Carcinogens are substances known to cause cancer in humans and animals. These carcinogens include Aminobiphenyl, 2-Naphthylamine, Chromium, N-Nitrosodiethylamine, N-Nitrosopyrrolidine, N-Nitrosodiethanolamine and Cadmium.

But the list doesn't end there. Aside from these carcinogens, cigarettes are composed of different ingredients like lead, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide and ammonia that aside from respiratory problems, may also cause weakness in the fingers, wrists and ankles, negatively affect memory, disrupt blood cell production and the male reproductive system, cause hearing and color vision loss and many other negative effects that one body cannot take all in.

Why it's harder to stop smoking now than ten years ago

The Massachusetts Department of Health released a report in 2007 that the level of nicotine found in U.S. cigarettes has risen since 2001, making it harder to quit and easier to get hooked, as reported by the Associated Press.

The study shows a steady climb in the amount of nicotine delivered to the lungs of smokers regardless of brand, with overall nicotine yields increasing by about 10 percent.

The study found the three most popular cigarette brands - Marlboro, Newport and Camel - delivered significantly more nicotine than they did years ago.

Smokers who choose "light" brands hoping to reduce their nicotine intake are out of luck, according to the report that found for all brands tested in 1998 and 2004, there was no significant difference in the total nicotine content between "full flavor," "medium," "light," or "ultra-light" cigarettes.

With all the statistics of smokers and the ill-effects of smoking listed over the years, it is obvious that smoking is a very hard habit to break. But knowing all the ill-effects of smoking to a smoker's body can at least make one fall into a deep thought and take a second look before puffing his/er next cigarette. (With a report from AP)

Source: http://ph.news.yahoo.com/mb/20100902/tel-smoking-is-dangerous-to-your-health-dedee51.html