The Danger of Tobacco

     Insurmountable medical proof shows the use of tobacco products (smoking, chewing and dipping) causes much havoc to the human body. According to Dr. DH Kress, the basic reason why tobacco is so harmful to the body is that it contains nineteen identifiable poisons, including the following:

• Nicotine—a pale yellow, highly toxic oily substance used commercially to kill rats; darts dipped in nicotine will kill a shark in eight seconds
• Tar
• Ammonia
• Formaldehyde
• Hydrogen sulfide
• Hydrogen cyanide
• Carbon monoxide—a deadly gas that reduces the blood to carry oxygen also emitted from the exhaust of cars
• Arsenic
• Nickel carbonyl—one of the poisons in tobacco that produces cancer
• Cadmium—causes cardiovascular disease
• Nitrogen dioxide

According to Dr. Louis H. Nahum in The Journal of the Connecticut Medical Society, “Strike a match, light a cigarette, inhale, relax, and say goodbye to 14.5 minutes of your life. If you do it twenty times a day, you can expect to die eight years earlier than you should; smoke two packs a day and double that to sixteen years.” Roughly, every 1.5 seconds, an American dies because of tobacco—1300 Americans die each day from cigarettes; millions have died of diseases caused by every tobacco product. Medical research has proven tobacco causes disease to the eyes, lips, throat, tongue, lungs, heart, stomach, blood vessels and the nervous system. Studies have shown tobacco connected with impotence, sterility, birth defects and even impaired scholastic performance. These facts do not even take into account those around who breathe the second-hand smoke, which some have concluded is even more dangerous. Even smokeless tobacco (chewing, snuff, dipping and such like) causes cancer of the mouth, lips and esophagus to name a few, gingival recession (gum decay) and periodontal bone destruction (the bone your teeth are set in). It is even more damaging to the oral cavity than smoking. Therefore, medical and dental science has proven tobacco in every form and amount to harm and abuse the body.

     Why should we be concerned? First, tobacco in every form is a physically, highly addictive drug. Both medical science and the tobacco users themselves establish this fact. Researchers find that nine out of ten smokers wish to stop—six out of ten have tried and failed. Statements that tobacco users make prove the addictive nature of nicotine in tobacco: “I wish I could quit; I wish I did not use it; I have tried to quit and cannot.” Being a slave to tobacco does not mean it is impossible to be free, but it influences the conduct of the user that will require all the determination the addict can muster to break the habit. Second, with a small amount of change in recent years, advertising for tobacco (in the millions of dollars each year) focuses on our young people. The advertising plays on all the changes that appeal to the adolescent: glamorous sensuality, rugged maleness and the freedom to decide what to do—drive a sports car, go fishing, and such like, as though adulthood were free from responsibilities and restrictions. Prevalent themes are romance, athletic ability, adulthood and personal popularity. The image is that users are a fun-loving active group. In interviews with thousands of tobacco users, the reasons given as to why they began to use tobacco include peer pressure, attempts of popularity, curiosity, nervousness and rebellion. Every day, 4500 children light their first cigarette.

     Tobacco appeals so strongly to an anti-authoritarian instinct, people continue to use tobacco in spite of steadily mounting evidence of its dangers. It is surprising how few people express a real like for tobacco—most say they do it because it does something for them. For many, it is kind of an anxiety reducer. One has said, “I started smoking as a boy to prove to others I was a man; several years later, I stopped smoking to prove the same thing.” Parents, please talk to your children about the dangers of tobacco!

Sam Willcut
Atoka, TN
Secretary, Tipton County Drug Coalition