Consequences of cigarettes and tobacco on health and the environment

1.10.2020

Consequences of cigarettes and tobacco on health and the environment

Summary

The dangers of tobacco

Health risks

The consequences on the environment

• How to quit smoking

According to the World Health Organization, tobacco is one of the main causes of death in the world but also the main preventable cause of death. Every year, smoking kills 5.7 million people. It is the only product legally available for sale that results in death when used exactly as intended by the manufacturer.

It is well known that half of the regular smokers today, around 1 billion people, will eventually die from smoking. Equally alarming is that hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die each year from illnesses caused by inhaling second-hand smoke.

Thus, smoking also involves the health of those around us, those we meet every day, at work, at home, and in public places. In fact, half of the smokers who consume more than 15 cigarettes per day die of tobacco-related illness, and thousands of passive smokers die each year.

• Smoking

Smoking is the abusive consumption of tobacco but also all physiological and psychological disorders, even intoxication caused by tobacco abuse. This is now undoubtedly responsible for a significant reduction in lifespan. We will re-specify here that in the current state of scientific knowledge, we have only one life ...

Data on smoking-related mortality

• In the world

During the twentieth century, tobacco-caused the death of 100 million people, and this number risks rising to 1 billion for the twenty-first century if the behavior does not change (OFDT, 2005). Tobacco is currently responsible for the death of one in 10 adults (or about 7 million deaths per year), according to the WHO.

More than 80% of these premature deaths are thought to occur in low- and middle-income countries - that is, precisely where it is most difficult to mitigate the effects of the epidemic and where these enormous losses are causes are the most difficult to bear.

According to a 2015 study conducted on the impact of smoking on life expectancy between 1980 and 2010, 20% of total adult mortality in 63 countries analyzed (24% in men and 12% in women) are linked to smoking. Without his deaths, adult life expectancy would increase by an average of 2.4 years for men (4.8 years in Hungary) and 1 year for women (up to almost 3 years in the United States).

• Passive smoking

Passive smoking causes approximately 602,000 premature deaths per year worldwide: that is 1% of all deaths. The diseases and infections at the origin of these deaths are 379,000 ischemic heart diseases; 165,000 lower respiratory tract infections; 36,900 asthma and 21,400 lung cancers. A distribution analysis shows that 47% of deaths caused by passive smoking are among women; as for children and men, they are affected at 28 (or 165,000 children per year) and 26% respectively.

• In Europe

On the same subject :

More than 90% of children in the world breathe polluted air

Atmospheric pollution: still 422,000 deaths per year in Europe, the main culprit: road traffic

48,000 deaths per year due to air pollution in France

Planting trees in cities can save tens of thousands of lives a year

Widespread adoption of electric cars would save billions of dollars and thousands of lives

Each year, tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke (passive smoking) kill more than 700,000 people in the European Union according to the European Parliament.

• In France

According to the OFDT, Some 78,000 people die each year from the consequences of tobacco (ie more than 10% of deaths), including 27,000 from lung cancer (90% are due to tobacco) according to the national league against cancer.

For one in four smokers, the average loss of life expectancy is twenty years and results in death before age 65, according to a study by the Ile-de-France Regional Health Observatory.

France has around 15 million smokers and it is young people between the ages of 20 and 25 who smoke the most (48% of the age group according to the OFDT).

Compared to a non-smoker, a smoker's cancer risk is multiplied by:

10 for lung and pharynx

7 for the pharynx

4 for mouth and esophagus

2 for the bladder.

The frequency of lung cancer is proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked each day. This frequency is already increased from 5 cigarettes per day ... Indeed if one smokes 5 x 365 day

s, for 15 to 20 years, that represents several tens of thousands of cigarettes.

The onset of cancer usually occurs after 15 to 20 years of exposure to tobacco smoke.

Passive smoking

In France, a million people are exposed to passive smoking. Which causes 2,500 to 3,000 deaths per year as a result of respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases in particular.

• Cigarette: the consequences of health

Tobacco products have been shown to contain and emit many harmful substances as well as known carcinogens dangerous to human health after combustion. The main effects are an approximately 25% increase in the risk of ischemic heart disease and lung cancer in adults. In children, exposure to tobacco smoke increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma.

Passive smoking has been clearly shown scientifically to cause death, disease, and disability and to pose dangers, especially for unborn children and infants. It can cause or worsen breathing problems in people who inhale smoke.

When you inhale cigarette smoke, you are exposing yourself to a cocktail of 4,000 chemicals, over 250 of which are harmful and around 50 carcinogenic. Here is an overview:

Acetaldehyde (respiratory irritant)

Acrolein (respiratory tract irritant)

Acetone (solvent)

Naphthylamine (carcinogen, possibly involved in bladder cancer)

Acrolein (respiratory tract irritant)

Methanol (fuel used for rockets)

Pyrene (toxic to kidneys and liver)

Dimethylnitrosamine (possibly carcinogenic)

Naphthalene (moth repellent)

Nicotine (used as a herbicide and insecticide)

Cadmium (used in batteries)

Carbon monoxide (fatal at a certain dose)

Benzopyrene (very carcinogenic mutagen)

Vinyl chloride (used in plastics, decreases libido)

Mercury (highly toxic)

Hydrocyanic acid (was used in gas chambers)

Toluidine (a carcinogen)

Ammonia (detergent)

Urethane (a carcinogen)

Toluene (industrial solvent)

Arsenic (violent poison)

Dibenzacridine (very toxic, carcinogenic)

Phenol (very irritant, used to kill prisoners during WWII)

Butane (respiratory irritant)

Polonium 210 (a radioactive element which would have served to poison Yasser Arafat)

Styrene (toxic, probably carcinogenic)

DDT (insecticide banned in the USA)

Tars (the most carcinogenic)

Lead (prohibited in gasoline because it is toxic)

Is rolling tobacco less harmful to health?

Contrary to popular belief, although it is less expensive, roll-your-own tobacco is much more toxic than cigarettes. Tobacco is less packed, it burns poorly, rolled cigarettes are more easily extinguished, but combustion takes place at a higher temperature, generating a more toxic smoke. Few smokers use a filter which would reduce the yield of nicotine. and tars. " specifies the DNF association which adds: "The way of smoking a rolled-up cigarette is different: deeper and longer inhalation, more puffs (M Epton et al., BMC Public Health, Sept 2009). And as the toxicity depends on the way of smoking and the way of rolling his tobacco, at least the smoker inhales twice as much tar, nicotine, and CO, then with manufactured cigarettes and even more, if the tobacco comes from counterfeit. doses of lead, arsenic, and cadmium are then particularly high. "