Why Quit Smoking?

Experts often say that tobacco exposure does not leave anyone without risk. When it comes to smoking, any efforts of moderation could hardly save you. If you are concerned about your health and that of the people around you, the only way to prevent causing more harm is to quit.

Tobacco smoke contains more than 250 toxic chemicals, many of which are carcinogenic (chemicals that cause cancer). These toxins remain present in the air after the smoker exhales. In fact, secondhand smoke is said to be more harmful than inhaled smoke.

A more recent study confirmed that tobacco contamination is no longer limited to what smoke is still visible in the air. Toxins linger hours after a cigarette is extinguished. This remaining hazard forms over time in carpets, clothes, sofas, curtain and other household materials that easily absorb such. Experts aptly call it as third-hand smoke. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Just because there’s no smoke doesn’t mean that snuff or chewing tobacco is less harmful than smoked tobacco. Experts often tell us that all tobacco products pose health risks.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20% of high school boys and 2% of high school girls are smokeless tobacco users. Smokeless tobacco is also called spit or chewed tobacco.

It comes in two types: the snuff and the chewing tobacco.

• Snuff refers to the fine-grained tobacco packaged in small pouches that resemble a tea bag. Users either pinch or dip it between their lower lips and gums.
• Chewing tobacco, on the other hand, are larger pieces of tobacco leaves that are also put between cheeks and gums. It is supposed to be spat to get rid of saliva while your mouth sucks out the tobacco juices. This allows nicotine to be absorbed into the blood stream through the lining of the mouth.

About 30,000 Americans suffer from mouth and throat cancer. Among this figure, 8,000 die in less than five years after the diagnosis. Most of them developed oropharyngeal tumor-a cancerous tumor of the throat. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Electronic cigarettes have been marketed as the best alternative to tobacco products like cigars, cigarettes and cigarillos. E-cigs are battery-operated gadgets that enables a smoker to inhale his or her daily dose of nicotine through vaporized nicotine solution.

They are usually designed to resemble a real tobacco smoking product. Even the mechanism tries to mimic how smokers get to inhale cigarettes. It has a sensor that detects air flow whenever the smoker inhales through its mouthpiece. This sensor would then activate the heating element to vaporize the nicotine solution installed in the cartridge inside the mouthpiece. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Second-hand smoke or passive smoke is medically known as environmental tobacco smoke. Simply put, it is the smoke that may harm nonsmokers. There are two sources of secondhand smoke: mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke. Mainstream smoke comes from the smoke exhaled by a smoker while sidestream comes from the smoke emitted by a lighted tobacco product.

The impact of second-hand smoke on a person’s health is said to be worse than that on the smoker himself. Nicotine and other toxins contained in tobacco products remain airborne for hours. Like what most experts say, it is difficult to assume that a certain level of secondhand smoke is safe. Tobacco products contain up to 4,000 chemicals, 250 of which are toxins, 60 of which are suspected to cause cancer. Because of that, secondhand smoke is now deemed as a human carcinogen. [Read the rest of this entry...]

Cigar smoking is now becoming a popular trend in the United States. In fact, it can already be considered as a subculture of so-called sophisticated and refined tobacco connoisseurs. There are magazines, shops, and bars that are dedicated solely for this interest. Tobacco companies have been capitalizing on this new trend by introducing glamour to what used to be a hard-to-curtail habit. [Read the rest of this entry...]