Smoking

Smoking is a very addictive and extremely harmful habit. So much so that authorities have chosen to mandate anti-smoking advertisements on packets of cigarettes.

The following images were taken from Australian advertisements.

 
It is no secret that smoking is linked to cancer of the lungs throat and mouth, as shown on the right. The face of a young smoker is permanently disfigured by cancer due to smoking.

 
Smoking can also cause a stroke in people as young as 32 years old.

 
Smoking causes arteries, such as the aorta, to collect fatty deposits on their wall.

 

The damage caused to the lungs by smoking is inescapable. A smoker's cough is a sure sign that damage to the lungs has already started.

Inside the lungs at the end of each branching tube we find tiny air sacs. These increase the surface area of our lungs where gas exchange between the air and blood takes place.

 
The walls of the branching tubes leading to the air sacs are lined with cells that have beating hair like structures called cilia and goblet cells that produce sticky mucus. The sticky mucus traps dust, bacteria and viruses while the cilia move the mucus out of the lungs.

 
Smoking destroys the cilia and mucus accumulates in the lungs. Strong coughing is needed to remove it. The healthy lungs, as shown on the right, slowly accumulate tar and other toxic waste from the cigarette smoke and gradually start to degrade.
What is a stroke?
How does smoking cause a heart attack?
Smokers usually have a characteristic cough known as a "smokers cough". Explain how this comes about..
What is the purpose of mucus?
Do you think advertising makes smoking appealing? Do you think it has had the desired effect?.Look at the statistics of teenage smoking to answer the previous question.
Continue with advertising and the tobacco industry.