Cigarettes don't kill. What do we inhale with cigarette smoke? Impact on the nervous system

We are often deceived. And when they want to hide something important, they come up with beautiful, but reflective definitions. Especially if it concerns a bad habit that takes away hundreds of thousands every year only in Europe (!).

“Smoking is pyrolytic inhalation (smoke inhalation) of preparations, mainly of plant origin, smoldering in the inhaled air stream, in order to saturate the body with the substances contained in them. active substances by their sublimation and subsequent absorption in the lungs and respiratory tract.

This definition lacks the most important: smoking kills. When you smoke a cigarette, products of incomplete oxidation of the wood that makes up the tobacco leaf enter your body. Carbon monoxide, benzo (a) pyrenes, resins, esters of high molecular weight acids and alcohols, soot particles, act on the mucous membrane respiratory tract are deposited in the alveoli of the lungs. Smoking causes inflammation in the bronchi and lungs, provokes the immune system to a perverse reaction, which leads to bronchial asthma, chronic airway obstruction and eventually lung cancer. Do you think about it when, out of habit, you buy another pack of tobacco at a kiosk?

Admit it, you try not to think about it, even when the manufacturer of a tobacco product, following the instructions of the WHO, honestly warns that smoking kills. You believe that this is a tribute to political correctness, that smoking will not kill you.

You are wrong. Smoking in the vast majority of cases is the cause of cancer of the larynx - malignant tumor, the survival rate at which Stage III is no more than 63-67%. Researchers note the correlation of smoking with impotence.

Men who smoke 20 cigarettes a day are 24% more likely to become impotent than non-smokers. Smoking or passive inhalation of tobacco smoke can cause infertility in women. Women who smoke are 60% more likely to become infertile compared to non-smokers.

According to statistics, only 1/5 of women who smoke quit smoking during pregnancy, despite the fact that smoking harms both the expectant mother and the fetus. A woman who smokes during pregnancy has a low birth weight baby. How more woman consumes nicotine, the lower the weight of the child. On average, a child is born 200 grams less if his mother smoked during pregnancy, compared with a non-smoking mother. The older the woman, the more noticeable this indicator. Women who smoked during pregnancy are more likely to have children with congenital anomalies heart, brain and face.

Currently, smoking is associated with 90% of cases of lung cancer - a malignant tumor, which in 60% of cases leads to the death of the patient. smoking in adolescence causes irreversible genetic changes in the lungs and permanently increases the risk of developing lung cancer, even if the person subsequently quits smoking. Among smoking men, the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is 17.2%, among women who smoke - 11.6%. This risk is significantly lower in non-smokers: 1.3% for men and 1.4% for women.

So you've smoked your last cigarette. you quit smoking

After 20 minutes, your blood pressure will most likely be back to normal.

After 8 hours, the level of bound carbon monoxide in the blood will decrease by half, the level of oxygen saturation of hemoglobin will become normal.

After 2 days, 90% of nicotine will be removed from your body. The risk of heart complications will decrease. The normal sense of smell and taste will be restored.

After 3-4 days, the functional parameters of the lungs (respiratory volumes and capacities) will return to normal.

After 3-9 months, coughing, wheezing and breathing problems will be significantly reduced. You will breathe easier.

After 1 year of quitting smoking, the risk of cardiovascular complications will be reduced by half.

After 5 years, the risk of violation cerebral circulation become the same as non-smokers.

In 10 years, the risk of lung cancer will be the same as not people who smoke your age.

The myth that smoking is very difficult to quit is propagated by the tobacco companies. They make fabulous profits on the sale of tobacco. And it is beneficial for them that people continue to smoke, continue.

Here are the facts. The cost of one pack of cigarettes, on average, is 10 (!) times higher than the cost of its production (in 2015, it averaged 7-10 rubles per pack). One of the big firms, namely the Imperial Tobacco Group, posted a profit of £2.337bn on a turnover of £26.5 trillion. These are fabulous sums, even by the standards of the European Union.

And finally - a sad and instructive page from the history of tobacco use.

In 1571, the Spanish doctor Nicholas Mondares published a work on medicinal plants America, where he pointed out that tobacco can cure 36 diseases. Tobacco in Europe at that time was not smoked, but alcoholic tinctures were prepared, which were taken drop by drop per os or administered to the patient in an oil enema. Tobacco smoking, i.e. inhalation of the smoke of smoldering tobacco leaves came into use only 150 years after the introduction of tobacco crops in Europe. Many victims of non-medical use of tobacco famous people that time. The Marquise de Pompadour was a passionate smoker and owned over three hundred pipes. Shortly after the end of the Seven Years' War, she died, presumably of lung cancer. She was only 42 years old. Historians report that the last will of the Marquise was an order to destroy all smoking pipes, which, according to the palace doctor, became the cause of the fatal outcome.

Tobacco leaves contain one of the most poisonous plant alkaloids - nicotine. Nicotine is produced in the roots of the plant and from there it goes to other parts, including the leaves. Different varieties of tobacco contain from 0.3 to 7% nicotine, with the largest amount in cheap varieties of tobacco, the smallest in expensive ones. When smoking tobacco, nicotine enters the body. A dose of nicotine of 30–60 mg is fatal for a person, 5–6 mg causes acute poisoning.

Nicotine is a poison of the nervous system that selectively acts on the nerve nodes of the central and peripheral nervous system that regulate the activity of internal organs and vitality. important systems. In small doses, nicotine is stimulating nervous system, in large ones - causes its paralysis (stopping breathing, cessation of cardiac activity).

Symptoms of nicotine poisoning in people who start smoking are as follows: nausea (sometimes vomiting), dizziness and headache. Regular smokers, on the other hand, are aroused brain activity and there is a feeling of satisfaction. However, symptoms of poisoning are also present: some increase blood pressure,

rapid pulse, stopping the contractions of an empty stomach.

Smoking is not only a bad habit, in its strength it is akin to a certain form of drug addiction (nicotinism). However, nicotine itself does not have a strong effect in the body and its harm to the body is much less than the harm carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid, 43 carcinogens and other constituents of tobacco smoke.

The main danger of nicotine is that nicotine addiction supports tobacco consumption, which is inevitably accompanied by the intake of all the harmful components of tobacco smoke. And cigarettes contain more than a dozen chemical compounds: ammonia, cadmium, acetic and stearic acid, hexamine, toluene, arsenic, methanol, etc.

In light of this, it seems reasonable that reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes will help smokers not develop addiction and they will be able to stop in time. However, everything happens quite the opposite. A smoker who has switched to a "light" brand of cigarettes, as a rule, calms down, despite the fact that the harmfulness of addiction to smoking tobacco is perceived by modern man almost as an axiom.

There is not a single organ on which smoking would not have a detrimental effect. Every year, new studies of the consequences of this pernicious weakness of mankind significantly expand the list of diseases. These included metabolic disorders, leukemia, cataracts, sclerosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular and reproductive systems, a whole bouquet oncological diseases starting with lung cancer.

In addition, statistics show that in smokers the incidence of diseases peptic ulcer stomach and duodenum twice as high as non-smokers. Since a cigarette dulls the feeling of hunger for some time, a smoking person, instead of (or together) with a cup of coffee, will prefer not a sandwich, but a cigarette, which

contribute to the development of gastrointestinal diseases.

Smoking is directly related to mental health person, the level of his energy and vitality. If the smoker is nervous, he calms down due to the cigarette, however, the “relaxation” effect is achieved due to the inhibitory effect of tobacco poisons on important parts of the nervous system.

In addition, getting used to smoking, a person gets a new source of stress - the absence of a cigarette, without which he can no longer relax. It turns out a vicious circle: both the occurrence and the cessation of stress depend on smoking.

Is it worth it to continue? .. However, it is not in vain that a person starts and continues to smoke. Apparently, there are some reasons for this. Most smokers enjoy smoking. And this must be acknowledged. All the arguments about the dangers of smoking are of little use to a smoker. Of course, there are those for whom reading the facts about the dangers of smoking has helped not only to think about quitting smoking, but actually quit. But there are much more others.

You can argue for a long time about the cause of the emergence of many brands of cigarettes lightened to varying degrees. On the one hand, of course, in the harsh conditions of the ban on smoking, the tobacco industry is forced to come up with new ways to market its product. But on the other hand, perhaps, after all, this is a search for the replacement of a harmful tool of habit with a less harmful one? After all, there is a demand!

To date, there is not a single tobacco company that has not thought about harm reduction from their cigarettes. Manufacturers are trying possible ways reduce the level of hazardous chemical elements contained in a conventional cigarette to a minimum.

What do the terms "light" and "ultra-light" cigarettes really mean? Are brands of "light" cigarettes less harmful or is it just a way to indicate the strength of taste and aroma? ..

Despite the fact that "light" and "ultra-light" cigarettes have a reduced content of tar (up to 1 mg) and nicotine (up to 0.1 mg), smokers of these brands get the same toxins into their bodies as those who smoke regular cigarettes. The researchers also found no significant differences in the amount of these carcinogens, not to mention complex substitution patterns. low level some toxic substances their synthesis during the burning of a cigarette, as well as a harmful combination of the remaining components ...

But that's not all. According to experts, “light” cigarettes can even cause much more harm than traditional ones. As an argument, the fact is given that some people, when switching to “light” cigarettes, simply begin to smoke more of them during the day, so that the dose of toxic substances consumed remains the same. In addition, when smoking light cigarettes, people take deeper puffs.

So let's not deceive ourselves with the fact that the ease of curing the diseases acquired from them depends on the "lightness" of cigarettes. No wonder smoking is a bad habit. Harmful means harmful to health.

It is good that modern man has begun to think more and more about his moral and physical well-being. It's good that he prefers "light" cigarettes today. It is even better if, after switching to "light" cigarettes, he decided to quit smoking altogether.

Just to strengthen this desire, it is worth saying that after you quit smoking in a month, your breathing will be much easier, you will begin to get enough sleep, your working capacity will increase and your overall tone will increase significantly. After 3-6 months, the lungs will be freed from harmful products burning tobacco (tar, tobacco dust, etc.). In a year, the risk of developing coronary disease will decrease by 50%. After 5 years, the risk of developing lung cancer will significantly decrease.

Why are there so few pictures?

Excuse me, but while I was looking for how to arrange this post, I saw so many horror movies that I simply did not dare to post them here.

Tobacco smoking has been known to mankind for many centuries. The authority of smokers in society was constantly undergoing changes, there were constant disputes about the dangers and benefits of smoking. However, on this moment It is undeniable that smoking kills a person!

Tobacco smoke consists of a fraction of gas and tar. It includes about 4 thousand different components. The gas fraction contains urethane, benzene, vinyl chloride, formaldehyde, etc. The resin contains aromatic amines, PAHs, polonium-210, nitrosamines, etc.

Smoking is directly related not only to lung cancer, but also to cancer of the oral mucosa, laryngopharynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney pelvis, pancreas, and cervix.

A person who smokes 2 packs a day can get lung cancer 15 times more often than a non-smoker. The risk increases significantly when smoking cigarettes that do not contain a filter, made from cheap tobacco.

Smoking is etiological factor development of acute bronchitis, bronchial asthma, COPD, which are manifested by cough and sputum production.

Smoking plays an active role in the development of gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastroesophageal reflux disease, as nicotine promotes hyperfunction of parietal cells, increases acidity gastric juice, the level of pepsinogen in the blood, suppresses the action of protective factors (reduces the formation of mucus, the synthesis of prostaglandins, blood flow), promotes duodenogastric reflux.

Chronic nicotine intoxication causes essential arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease. Between smoking and development acute leukemia there is a direct relationship, which is especially pronounced at the age of over 60 years. Approximately 20% of cases of acute myeloid leukemia are caused by smoking. Unfortunately, the progression of any chronic disease leads to death.

Everyone knows the effect of nicotine in "chronic" smoking. However, few people know that acute nicotine poisoning is also possible.

Scientists have calculated the lethal dose of nicotine: 1 milligram per kilogram of human body weight. This means that if you smoke a pack of cigarettes at once, a person can die from acute poisoning.

Tobacco extract quickly penetrates through the mucous membranes and is rapidly metabolized in the body. Detoxification in the liver, 25% is excreted unmeasured in the urine, in the exhaled air, with sweat. The lethal dose for adults is 40 mg; for children - 10 mg. Toxic concentration in the blood is 10 mg/l, lethal - 5-22 mg/l. Nicotine has a psychotropic neurotoxic effect, excites the central nervous system, N-cholinergic systems of the body, which is manifested by headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypersalivation, cold sweat, tinnitus; irregular pulse; constriction of the pupils, impaired vision and hearing, myofibrillation, clonic-tonic convulsions; coma, collapse. Non-smokers are more susceptible to the effects of nicotine than long-term smokers.

Combination of tobacco smoke and other carcinogens

In radon ore miners, exposure to tobacco and AI increases the risk of cancer by 10 times. Smoking and asbestos increase the possibility of developing lung cancer, with alcohol - cancer of the esophagus, with occupational hazards chemical industry - bladder cancer.

Not only active, but also passive smoking kills, the likelihood of developing lung cancer increases in the wives of smokers.

Epidemiology of tobacco smoking

Every year more than 350,000 people in the US and more than 6 million people worldwide die from smoking, a third of deaths due to cancer, the rest from cardiopulmonary complications. The death rate from lung cancer outnumbers the death rate from breast cancer. With the cessation of smoking, the risk decreases only after 12 years.

Man and attitude in society

The harm of smoking affects the behavior of a person in society, his attitude to reality. Since the beginning nicotine syndrome a person becomes irritable, quick-tempered, absent-minded, his attention is weakened, his memory is impaired. Such people are characterized by insomnia, bizarre dreams, mood lability, derealization, impaired personal functioning. These manifestations are associated with such a neurotropic poison as nicotine alkaloid.

smoking and pregnancy

The harm of smoking lies not only in the negative impact on the body of a smoker, in particular a smoking mother, but also on a child in the womb. Under the influence of nicotine, the vessels of the uterus narrow, as a result of which there is a decrease in the supply of oxygen to the child's body. Smoking kills the child pathological factor causing miscarriage, premature labor, miscarriage, birth defects development, sudden death fetus.

Thanks

There is an opinion that a drop of nicotine can kill a horse. People, of course, are not horses, which is why many of them are of the opinion that this kind of “trouble” simply does not threaten them.
Is it really?
Very often, picking up another cigarette, we forget that nicotine is a drug, the action of which resembles the action of the strongest poison. All smokers are the same drug addicts who, refusing cigarettes, begin to experience the so-called withdrawal. It is breaking that most often becomes the reason that a person cannot get rid of this bad habit. Perhaps after reading this article, you will understand how harmful it is. smoking, and not only for smokers, but also for the people who surround him. How exactly "kill" a person's cigarettes, you will find out right now.

What is smoking?

Historical facts

Nicotine - general information

How does nicotine poisoning manifest itself?

Composition of tobacco smoke

Types of smoking

• sedative ( general relief in an unpleasant situation);
• passion ( automatic smoking, in most cases unconscious, the thought of cigarettes arises only when they are not at hand);
• conniving ( a person smokes for the purpose of obtaining pleasure or to enhance a pleasant situation, the frequency of smoking varies widely);
• stimulating ( cigarettes act as a support when performing monotonous work, mental tasks, in stressful situations, as well as when concentration is necessary).

• sensory-motor ( the process itself brings satisfaction to the person);
• psychosocial ( to achieve social trust, a kind of means of self-affirmation).

The reasons

Tobacco addiction

The dose that kills a person

Harm of smoking for the female body

Harm of smoking for the male body

Cough is another symptom that worries almost every smoker. At first, he only bothers men in the morning, but over time, he becomes more and more severe forms. The main problem that can arise in men due to cigarettes is impotence. Combustion products tobacco tar, provoke vasoconstriction in the pelvic organs. As a result, there is a clear violation of blood circulation, primarily in the prostate gland. Prolonged smoking can cause the development of a more terrible disease, namely adenoma ( benign tumor ), which over time can develop into cancer prostate. And, of course, it should be noted that cigarettes shorten the life of a male by at least 10 years.

Effects on the respiratory organs

Impact on the nervous system

Do not bypass smoking and mental activity. Smokers very often experience mood deterioration, memory disorders, decreased performance, hand tremors, migraines and insomnia. Under the influence of nicotine, polyneuritis, neuritis, radiculitis, dizziness, spasms or sclerosis of cerebral vessels, etc., can make themselves known. It is quite possible to develop convulsive conditions. Hemorrhages in the brain in people who smoke are observed 3-4 times more often than in others. In general, nicotine has a detrimental narcotic effect on the nervous system.

Effect on the skin

Influence on the organs of the digestive system

Impact on the organs of the reproductive system

Effect on the cardiovascular system

Pain in the heart, heart rhythm disturbances, palpitations - all these are phenomena that almost all smokers face. Nicotine can also lead to the development of such a complex pathological condition as intermittent claudication ( disease characterized by pain in calf muscles when walking as a result of circulatory disorders lower extremities ). This pathology dangerous for its complications, one of which is gangrene. With the development of gangrene, a person most often amputates both legs. Tobacco smoke also provokes fatty degeneration of the heart muscle, reducing the efficiency of the heart to a minimum. Since the heart of a smoker is forced to work at an accelerated pace, it wears out much faster.

Nicotine and the human psyche

Smoking leads to hypothermia

Nicotine and adolescent health

Harm to others

Smoking during pregnancy

Smoking during lactation

Is hookah harmful?

What happens when we quit smoking?

• In 20 minutes: normalization of the work of the heart is noted, blood pressure decreases to normal, blood supply to the feet and palms improves;
• After 8 hours: the level of oxygen in the blood is normalized;
• After 2 days: the ability to sense both smell and taste is enhanced;
• After 7 days: the complexion improves significantly, the unpleasant odor from the hair, skin, and mouth disappears;
• After 1 month: breathing normalizes, chronic headaches, excessive fatigue and cough disappear;
• In 6 months: the pulse becomes less frequent, there is a desire for physical activity, sports results improve;
• After 1 year: the risk of developing coronary heart disease is reduced by 50%;
• After 5 years: the risk of death from lung cancer is reduced to a minimum.

What can you do?

Withdrawal symptoms can also be alleviated with a medication called clonidine , which is intended for the treatment of increased blood pressure. If this does not help, then use the help of hypnosis. What exactly is this method of quitting smoking, and exactly how it works, you can find out by consulting a specialist. In general, there are plenty of methods. The most important thing is to have a desire and how you can more power will! Quitting smoking, following all the rules of a healthy lifestyle, a reasonable alternation of work and rest, playing sports, exciting leisure activities - this is how you need to live, thus prolonging your working capacity and strengthening your health.

Today we will talk about smoking and find out whether smoking is really harmful.

If you look closely at a tobacco shop or a cigarette stall, you can see a direct road to cemetery. How do you ask me? And I will answer. Just pay attention to what all the packs of cigarettes displayed in the windows are full of today? Each one, without exception, is covered by a third with two words of the following content - "SMOKING KILLS".

From here, as it were, the conclusion suggests itself, people who buy cigarettes are consciously risking their lives, deliberately going to an untimely death.

It is unlikely that this happens out of ignorance. You understand how many years tobacco has existed on our continent, so much time has been fought against it. Initially, for example, on the Russia for smoking tobacco flogged with rods, and then, for the subsequent disobedience, the nostrils were torn. Yes! Imagine if today smokers got what they deserved during the reign of Mikhail Fedorovich or Alexei Mikhailovich? An impressive part of the Russians would look like an unsuccessfully pierced teenager.

But I want to point out that negative attitude to tobacco in the world was not always, at one time, smoking grass was used even for medicinal purposes. Today, by the way, too, people are sometimes prescribed tobacco, in the case of ulcerative colitis. But this is already medicine, and particular situations to which we will not deviate.

Let us return a little to history, when, thanks to the revolutionary spirit Peter the Great smokers got relief. True, in those days, Russians were forbidden to grow beards, but as a bonus - allowed to smoke. Why not reciprocate?

By the way, perhaps Peter turned out to be a seer, because, as today's medicine proves - smokers with facial hair - be it a mustache or a beard - absorb more harmful substances than those with clean-shaven skin. The fact is that the dangerous components included in cigarettes - tar, nicotine, and so on skillfully settle on the hairs around the mouth. Therefore, even after smoking a cigarette, the “bearded man” will continue to inhale the poison. Until thoroughly washed beard or mustache. Or he will not shave, as Tsar Peter bequeathed.

In general, I think everyone understands that smoking is harmful. But for some reason, even relying on this knowledge, 45 million people in our country are currently smokers! Just think - it's almost one third of the total population of Russia! The rest - those who do not smoke, as practice shows, suffer greatly from the dominance of "smoke vents".

Evgenia, photographer: “I have had allergies and asthma since early childhood. different substances and even to medicines, reactions to household chemicals, dust or combustion products. Smoke from burning leaves, from a fire or cigarette smoke led to Quincke's edema, and asthma attacks sometimes led to loss of consciousness from suffocation. Therefore, you have to be very careful all your life: and if you can protect yourself from dust or medicines, household chemicals, then you cannot hide from cigarette smoke in our country. They smoke everywhere: on the street, on the porch of any establishment, in any bar / cafe / restaurant / hotel, in the entrances of residential buildings, at bus stops! It is impossible to control it, to protect yourself from another attack of allergies, even medicines do not always help, and it is impossible to take them daily for many years.

It seems that our country is focused on smokers - they are everywhere in a privileged position. It turns out that if you do not smoke and try to drive healthy lifestyle life, protecting yourself from an asthma attack and allergies is your problem, solve it as you like, stay at home and don’t go anywhere if you don’t feel like breathing smoke.

A separate story is smoking in public catering establishments - after all, cigarette smoke kills the very meaning of food: you do not feel the taste and aroma of freshly cooked food, even if you are sitting in a non-smoking room - smoke and smell penetrate everywhere. There is a joke: the smoking area in a restaurant is like a pissing area in a swimming pool.

It is also amazing that smoking has become the norm so much that people consider it harmless not only for themselves, but also for others: now they smoke even with children! It can be added that in Europe and the USA it is even somehow shameful to smoke, and you will meet few people who smoke, as a rule, they themselves try to smoke so that the smoke does not bother anyone. And they don’t smoke in their establishments, so anyone can go anywhere without fear of inhaling smoke.”

If you ask a stable nicotine absorber why he smokes, then most often you will encounter such an answer as - " I like it, it gives me pleasure».

Xenia, banker: “I just enjoy the process of smoking. Drawing smoke into the lungs and releasing it back. In addition, the taste of the cigarettes that I smoke is very pleasant, fragrant. Smoking with a cup of coffee in the morning, in a cafe, while you are on vacation is very cozy.”

Naturally, no one wants to talk about what is really - smoking is disgusting, and even more so to remember how once The first time I took a cigarette in my mouth and I didn’t like it terribly. It is clear that a smoker's cough can be covered with an eternal cold, and an unpleasant smell can be chewed with chewing gum. In addition, few smokers will ever say what is really wants to quit smoking, since it is simply necessary to prove the "holiness" of this ritual to those around - those who aim at curtailing the "freedom of choice" of the one who prays. But anyway, back to the numbers.

Daily our the world smokes 15 billion cigarettes. Think for a second - what is the population of planet Earth? So here it is we are 7 billion. Now you understand that total self-destruction is happening around? For example, in France, three to five thousand passive smokers die prematurely every year! But, apparently, people who smoke already know that they are deliberately killing themselves, what do they care about the whole world ...

In general, when a person “automatically” gives money for a favorite box of cigarettes in a stall or in a store, he almost certainly does not think about how he will now light up a piece of paper stuffed with God knows what, attached to the “protecting” lungs filter. As a rule, at this moment, some problem or an unfinished, haunting thought is walking around in his head, requiring a distraction - that very cigarette.

Polina, freelancer: « In the past few years, the smell of tobacco has begun to lose its former charm for me. Earlier in smoking for me there was a spirit of inspiration and protest. The cigarette helped write. Now a cigarette is an attempt to somehow calm down if you are too excited. ”

And then, if you, for example, are a smoker, then it should be Do you prefer lighter cigarettes? They supposedly contain less nicotine and other filth, but you still, as it turns out, take care of your health? That is, in this way, you consciously protect yourself, as it were, from premature death, without implying that if cigarettes are lighter, then you will smoke them more often.

Have you heard anything about nicotine starvation? Yes, the thing is that if a person constantly smokes - the body gets used to the regular intake of nicotine into the blood, therefore, the moments between smoke breaks are so “hard” experienced. And that's why the doctors are calling that smoking is addictive, and more daring doctors emphasize that such a hobby akin to drug addiction.

Of course, you can surround yourself with illusions about the "harmlessness" of lighter or thinner cigarettes - until death. Yes, and laying out a hundred rubles a day for a pack of twenty murderous sticks is also a matter of habit. Answers like this dying from tobacco is not scary when you can fall dead from an icicle that has fallen from the roof or from a collapsed piece of stucco molding from the facade of a building, if you live, say, in St. Petersburg - favorite topics of heavy smokers.

But let's not beat around the bush, but dig deeper - why some trumpet the dangers of smoking, others continue to "tar", but no one not talking about cigarette manufacturers? Why is the focus shifted to protecting health, and not to the manufacturers of "contagion"? After all, it is obvious that people who consciously buy "death" for themselves shortening their lives by at least 10 years - not interested in the state of his own body.

Smokers - wow! Are you wondering at least who earns money on you and your children? Who buys islands in the waters at your expense Pacific Ocean and is going to fly into space, for example ... to teach aliens how to smoke?

tobacco mafia. I must say that this phrase sounds much more serious than the phrase "Smoking kills" or colorful photos of lung cancer on the back of the pack. Tobacco mafia in Russia, despite the law prohibiting smoking in in public places, directed against the propaganda of a bad habit, has a very strong position.

Love, a cigarette seller: “I am neutral about smoking. I think it's up to everyone to smoke or not to smoke. I myself don’t smoke for a number of reasons: well, firstly, I think that a girl with a cigarette is not aesthetically pleasing, and secondly, I don’t like the smell of tobacco smoke, and I don’t want it to come from me. And the fact that it is harmful to health ... There is so much harmful for people in the world, and every day a person poisons his body with low-quality food, alcohol, the environment and much more.

Just think how long excise taxes on cigarettes were kept and they did not rise in price! The low cost of cigarettes in Russia has led such developed countries as the USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, where they have been fighting smoking for a long time, and tobacco products have a price significantly exceeding a hundred of our rubles.

Now, as we can see, the gradual increase in the cost of a pack of cigarettes leads to the fact that those who are used to smoking deliberately pay more for all the same evil, and underground market cigarette-trade aimed at brand-new yet bankrupt smokers - grows.

And when the whole world refuses to smoke, the citizens of Russia, on the contrary, are dragging on harder. What is the reason for this, you ask? With the fact that transcontinental corporations for the manufacture of cigarettes rushed to our dear domestic market. Thus, according to some data, 94% of the entire Russian tobacco market is occupied by companies with foreign capital, such as Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, the Japanese JTI and other leaders in tobacco production. Still they would not strive here when for tobacco products in the country by its own citizens annually spending over $5 billion a year.

Do you know why? The whole point is that smoking, though now unobtrusively, but enough massively promoted.

By whom? All the same famous tobacco companies with untold budgets. Where? Pick up expensive gloss, go to the theater, watch your favorite movie. Yes take a look at modern Russian actresses, musical performers, TV presenters. In 90% of a hundred - you will stumble upon people who smoke, smoking cigarettes, advertising new stylish packs filled with super absorbent unpleasant odors filters and flavors.

Margaret, writer: « I am a victim of the myth that smoking is cool. I once saw enough of Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" and read Kurt Vonnegut. I want to quit. Dropped three times. But then everything goes back to normal.”

What are the lofty faces of film stars emitting wisps of white smoke worth? Of course, this looks very attractive, especially for young people who a priori fight for their freedom and do everything that is forbidden with unspeakable enthusiasm. But It's one thing to start smoking, it's quite another to quit.. Only a personal array of willpower will help here.

Olesya, marketer: “Smoking experience 20 years (since 9 years). I have always liked smoking. I really liked it, so I smoked on purpose and didn’t even think about quitting. Last year I mentally prepare for the fact that I will quit, I still don’t prepare in any way. It is necessary to quit, because already “great” this habit has spoiled the outer shell. Very bad skin has become, and in general, hit on health, appeared bronchial asthma. I am fine with smokers, but I do not accept smoking in the presence of children and smoking pregnant women.

I hope you understand that, in fact, both tobacco manufacturers and its distributors, no matter how much they write on cigarette packs, and at least on each individual cigarette, that “ Smoking kills» your life is not a concern, much less how soon you will die - from cancer, asthma or a heart attack caused by their products.

We can say that the state is in some sense indifferent to the length of your life, mind you, here even no one calls for the implementation of the laws adopted against smokers - everyone smoked at bus stops and train stations - they “smoke” farther.

Moreover, those smokers who do not even intend to quit addiction, most likely, by ourselves no one cares about own life. What can we talk about if every day they tirelessly buy themselves “lung cancer”, hiding behind the fact that they just like to inhale “burning paper”.

Therefore, here I am by no means pursuing the idea of ​​​​broadcasting that smoking is bad for your health. It affects the problems with potency in men, the birth of dead children or underdeveloped "mutants" in women, causes premature aging skin, shortness of breath, blockage of blood vessels, gangrene, strokes, heart attacks, manic addiction, cancer of various internal organs, and eventually death.

I just want to tell you that, being once a smoker myself, in the company of my own kind there was such a story - when shoot a cigarette and say "thank you", the one who gave you a light never say "good luck". That is everyone really understands that they are killing themselves.

And here, no matter how much the MINISTRY OF HEALTH WARNED. No matter how many posters are glued and social projects are unfolded, how many laws are passed, until the person himself reaches, what smoking is like death that those who sell cigarettes are impudently cashing in on it, and those who “screen” smoke are simply just as sick and dependent people , like the smoker himself, and not at all cool and accomplished characters due to an elegant cigarette - nothing will change.

Anna, beautician “As a child, when my high school girlfriends were sneaking around the corner to smoke, my mother, afraid of bad influence, said that if she knew that I was indulging in the same thing, she would feed me a whole pack of cigarettes. The persuasion had an effect on me. At the institute, the passion for tobacco among young girls was gaining unimaginable momentum. Everyone around me smoked. It was cool to sit in the kitchen in the company of future journalists, exhale cigarette smoke and discuss pressing media issues. I didn't smoke then either. I thought, since I didn’t start dabbling in tobacco in high school, now I don’t have to try to fit in with the new environment. Moreover, if at the age of 13 smoking seemed incredibly cool and you could feel like an adult, then at 20 it is a conscious choice that can leave a mark on our lives, or rather our appearance.

Recently, a friend of mine who is approaching her 40s (20 of which she smokes 5 cigarettes a day for 20 years) complained that her skin had lost firmness and had a greyish complexion. “Maybe it’s time to try Botox,” she concluded. Knowing her quick-tempered character, I did not try to convince her, but only mentally thought "Maybe it's time to throw away cigarettes".»