Individual Entry Archive: Consider This

Smoking Consquences

I am always dismayed and appalled at the number of students at Heald who smoke. I worry about their health and mine, when I am forced to walk through the gamut of smokers on my way the Heald's front door. I am exposed to secondary smoke.

The US Surgeon General issued the Consequences of Smoking Report on May 27, 2004
Key Findings
The Report has four major conclusions.

• First, it affirms that smoking harms nearly every major organ of the body, often in profound ways, causing many diseases and significantly diminishing the health of smokers in general.
• Second, quitting smoking has immediate as well as long-term benefits.  Within minutes and hours after smokers inhale that last cigarette, their bodies begin a series of changes that continue for years.  Among these health improvements are a drop in heart rate, improved circulation, and reduced risk of heart attack, lung cancer and stroke.  By quitting smoking today a smoker can have many healthier tomorrows.
• Third, smoking so-called low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes provides no clear benefit to health.
• Finally, the list of diseases caused by smoking has been expanded to include abdominal aortic aneurysm; acute myeloid leukemia; cataract; periodontitus; pneumonia; and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas, and stomach.
 

Source: The US Surgeon General's Consequences of Smoking Report of May 27, 2004.