In this article you will find the answers for such questions as:

• why smoking is so dangerous;
• what are the consequences of smoking;
• how much smoking shortens our life for;

and many other interesting and quite important facts about this addiction.

Take a look at the clock and note what the time is.

Smoking is:

• 90% of the lung cancer (the women mortality in the USA and Germany due to lung cancer increased sharply through the last decade and now it is equal to the mortality due to breast cancer)
• 18 types of the tumors are concerned with smoking only. These are such as oral cavity, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas and prostate, liver, kidneys, urinary bladder and uterus cancer
• 75% of the chronic bronchitis and lungs emphysema
• 35% of the ischemia heart disease (infarctions, stenocardia, arrhythmia, cardiac failure).

Below are some more facts:

• The level of the vitamin C in the smokers’ blood is two times lower than in other people.
• The blood ability to deliver the oxygen into the tissues of smokers decreases for 5-10%.
• According to the data provided by human pathologists the lungs of the smoker in the age of 40 years are the same as the ones of the nonsmoking people in the age of 70-80 years.
• According to the researches having smoked a pack of cigarettes a person needs 2 more hours to perform certain job that commonly requires only 8 hours.
• Continued smoking leads to decreased vision, worsened sense of smell and taste.
• There are also certain facts showing that the impotency is caused by the smoking in the 11% of all cases.
• Smoking women 2 or 3 times often may give birth to premature infants.
• The children of 40% of the women smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day are predisposed to fits and epilepsy.
• Smoking in combination with the hormonal contraceptives increases the possibility of the heart diseases in women in 20 times and the possibility of the cerebrovascular accident – in 7 times.
• The life of the smokers is approximately for 5-6 years shorter (and the life of the true smokers is shorter for 10 years).
• Those smokers in the age of 40-49 years die 3 times often due to cardiac infarction and lungs cancer.

In case you don’t smoke then try to avoid the inhalation of the other peoples’ smoke that is equally harmful. The children of the smokers have more chances to get such diseases as pneumonia, bronchitis, bronchial asthma. The wife having smoking husband has more than 60% of the possibility that she’ll get certain cardiovascular disease.

Smoking of the one cigarette releases up to 2 liters of the tobacco smoke that contains up to 6 000 particles of the soot in every cubic centimeter. This smoke contains more tar and nicotine, 5 times more carbon oxides and 10 times more ammonia than in the one absorbed by the smokers’ lungs.

To show these facts let consider certain numbers. The flow rate of the nicotine: 20% is left in the smokers’ body; 25% is being eliminated when burning; 5% is left in the cigar-butt; 50% is being dissolved in the air. So, 50% of the nicotine and the smoke are left in the air that is used by other people for breathing.

Well, there will always be a person who will raise an objection to everything said above and say that has once heard about this or that old man that have smoked during the whole life and still lived for 90 years. It is possible from the theoretical point of view but almost impossible from the practical one. So smoking is the terrible lottery with such prizes as lung cancer, bronchitis, infarctions, cerebrovascular accidents and many others. Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemical compounds and 43 of them are acknowledged to be carcinogens. Anyone may get the jackpot in any lottery by purchasing only one lottery-ticket. True smokers always have much more tickets of this terrible lottery. What is the result – this is the matter of chance.

It is quite difficult to give up smoking as it is not a bad habit but a real addiction. The international classification of the diseases says that the excessive use of the alcohol and smoking are real addictions. And it is quite difficult to get over smoking. No method may provide at least 50% of the positive result in the long-term period. According to scientists 80% of those gave up smoking start to smoke again in one year after it. 90% of all patients experience relapses in 2-3 years more after it. Neither of the methods used can bring the smoker to remission. And the total recovery of the tobacco addiction is something almost unreal.

In the conclusion I’d like to add some facts from my own experience. I have seen patients with chronic lungs and heart diseases. They usually stay at home for the all time. They cannot even sleep normally due to the constant short breath and the lack of the air. Furthermore they sleep in sitting position as when they lie the short of breath strengthens (respiratory muscles have to perform more job). Once or twice I have met patients with oncological diseases that experienced quite severe algesic syndrome. And it is also quite difficult to see these patients.

According to one of my school teachers it is better to be healthy and wealthy than sick and poor. I think this is nothing but truth. Now watch at your clock and count how much time did you need to read this article. Every 8 seconds someone dies due to certain reasons concerned to smoking. In case you smoke or simple breathe the tobacco smoke then you may also take place in this statistics. This is the terrible lottery.