The Chronic Health Issues for a Tobacco Smoker

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER: LITERATURE REVIEW1

Introduction1

Limitations of the research2

Search terms3

Data collection3

Lung cancer3

Damaging of reproductive system5

Coronary Artery Disease5

Smoker's cough6

Bronchitis6

Emphysema6

Heart disease7

Effects on the reproductive system7

Damage to the musculoskeletal system7

Damage to the skin8

Damage to the health of family members8

Damage to the respiratory system8

Atherosclerosis8

Smoking and diseases of the mouth9

Stroke9

Passive smoking10

Future research11

REFERENCES13CHAPTER: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

The damaging health effects of smoking are due to the many hundreds of toxic components in the tar droplets together with the carbon monoxide that is inhaled (Barnes 2009). The former include known carcinogens while the latter appears to have atherosclerotic effects. Nicotine is not carcinogenic and appears to produce little or no physical harm in the doses that smokers receive it, except possibly during pregnancy or in rare cases of susceptibility to particular vascular diseases (Barnes 2009). Changes in women's smoking habits have led to substantial increases in smoking-related disease and death among women (Malak 2002).

In many countries, smokers die an average of some 10 years early, but in many cases it has been seen that many smokers die even 20 years earlier. Smokers do not escape 'old age' by smoking - they spend at least as much time with diseases of old age as do non-smokers - they just do it at a much younger physical age (Heath 2008). Cigar and pipe smoking carries a similar risk to cigarettes if the smoker inhales the smoke into the lungs. If smoke is not inhaled the risk is reduced. Smokeless tobacco use (chewing, snuffing or dipping) is much less harmful than smoking (Sutherland 2007).

Changes in women's smoking habits have led to substantial increases in smoking-related disease and death among women. Most striking is the increase in lung cancer rates among women in the past 3 or 4 decades, but the list of other health effects is long (Benbassat 2008). Women smokers of any age are more than 10 times as likely as non-smoking women to die of cancers of the larynx and oesophagus and of chronic obstructive lung disease, including emphysema (Sutherland 2007). Cancer risk rises even more if cigarette smoking is combined with alcohol use or with occupational exposure to toxic substances such as asbestos (see occupational hazards). Each year smoking accounts for 25 percent of all deaths among American women, accounting for approximately 106,000 deaths per year (Heath 2008). The specific risk of developing any of the many conditions that have been linked to cigarette smoking depends on how long a person has smoked, how many cigarettes they have smoked altogether, and how deeply they inhales (Benbassat 2008).

Limitations of the research

In order to solve the problems, researches are taken into considerations, therefore it is important to explain the nature of the problem and justify the reason for which the research is taken into considerations. The reason is required to explain that what are the necessary steps that are being taken to complete the research and how this research is complete (why? and for what?). It is done in order to find the dimensions ...