Topicality of the research. The desire to maintain good health is an important human social need, a necessary condition for a full life, high creative activity, happiness.
“Man can live up to 100 years,” said the academician I.P. Pavlov. “We ourselves by our intemperance, our disorderliness, our ugly treatment of our own bodies reduce this normal period to a much smaller figure.
As a result of bad habits, life expectancy is reduced, mortality is increased, and defective offspring are born.
Smoking is one of the most widespread and widespread habits in the world, causing damage to the health of an individual and to society as a whole. Tobacco is the only type of consumer product that ultimately kills half of its regular users and is one of the causes of the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease, cancer and many chronic lung diseases.
Smoking involves virtually all segments of the population and, most dangerously, women and youth. According to experts, in our country, almost a third of the entire population aged 15 years and older are smokers. Tobacco smoking is one of the most widespread types of addiction, which includes a large number of people and is, therefore, a household addiction.
Why do people smoke? What harm does this bad habit do to a person? How to solve the problem of smoking? This problem interested me, which was the reason for choosing the topic of my research “Smoking and human health”.
Objective: to identify the impact of smoking on human health and to propose ways to solve the problem.
Objectives:
1. To analyze the literature on the topic of research
2. To study the physical and chemical mechanism of smoking
3. To clarify the impact of smoking on the human body
To investigate in practice the schoolchildren’s attitude towards smoking
Object of the study: human health.
Subject of the research: the influence of smoking on a person
Hypothesis: if people know more about the harm of smoking, they will smoke less.
CHAPTER I. MAIN PART
1.1 History of tobacco in Russia
Tobacco was brought to Europe by Columbus from America. The Spaniards were the first Europeans who were addicted to smoking, imported the seeds of tobacco and began to cultivate it. The spread of tobacco met with opposition in countries. In Turkey smoking was considered a violation of Koranic laws and the guilty were put to the stake. Shah Abbas of Persia ordered a merchant who brought tobacco into an army camp to be burned. Pope Urban VII excommunicated those who smoked or sniffed tobacco. Tobacco was introduced to Russia by Peter the Great in the 16th century. Tobacco was not immediately accepted; smoking was punished by very serious penalties ranging from caning and flogging to cutting off noses and ears and exile to Siberia. But gradually the ban on smoking was lifted. Over the years, men, women, young people, and even children took up the bad habit. The fashion for smoking emerged. Obligatory accessory of television and movie characters was a cigarette. Experiments have shown that animals are killed by nicotine. That’s when the phrase was born: “A drop of nicotine kills a horse”. But smokers could only smile: it seemed that I was stronger than a horse – how much nicotine I consumed and still survived! They consoled themselves: tobacco tar stays on the filter. But nothing passes without a trace… And all this will certainly affect heavy smokers and their children. Currently, the problem of smoking, especially in Russia, is not given enough attention. For advertising of tobacco and related products incomparably more money is allocated than for anti-tobacco campaigns. Did you know that every year 1.5 million people die of diseases caused by smoking? Tobacco smoke contains more than 30 poisonous substances! Statistics show that smokers around the world (and there are over a billion smokers) buy between four and five trillion cigarettes each year, spending between $85 billion and $100 billion a year. Doctors believe that one-third of all cancers are directly related to smoking.
1.2 Composition of tobacco and tobacco smoke.
Tobacco smoke contains more than 30 poisonous substances: nicotine, carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid, ammonia, tarry substances, organic acids and others; and harmful substances – almost 1200.
Nicotine. Nicotine refers to nervous poisons. And a man takes it at will, “for pleasure”! In its toxicity, it is equal to hydrocyanic acid. Birds die if you put a glass rod dipped in nicotine in their beak. A rabbit is killed by 1/4 drop of nicotine, a dog by 1/2 drop. For humans, the lethal dose of nicotine is 50 to 100 mg, or 2 to 3 drops. This is the dose that enters the bloodstream daily after smoking 20 to 25 cigarettes. Nicotine is rapidly absorbed from the lungs into the bloodstream, reaching the brain in 7 seconds. Systematic absorption of small, non-lethal doses of nicotine causes the habit, the addiction to smoking, as nicotine is included in metabolic processes. It has been found that nicotine in small doses excites nerve cells, contributes to increased breathing and heart rate, heart rhythm disturbance, nausea and vomiting. In high doses it inhibits and then paralyzes CNS cells activity, including vegetative. Nervous system disorder is manifested by decreased ability to work, hand tremors, weakened memory. Nicotine also affects the endocrine glands, in particular – the adrenal glands, which release the hormone into the blood – adrenaline, causing vasospasm, increased blood pressure and heart rate, has a negative effect on the sex glands, contributing to impotence in men. It is a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound that is an alkaloid. It is the most toxic. It is used as a contact insecticide to control pests. Its lethal dose is contained in one to two packs of cigarettes. From the death of the smoker is saved only by the fact that this dose is introduced into the body not at once, but gradually. In addition, the effect of nicotine partially neutralizes another poison contained in tobacco – formaldehyde. It is estimated that over thirty years, the average smoker smokes 160 kilograms of tobacco, while absorbing 800 grams of nicotine, while the fatal dose of nicotine for humans is about 50-100 milligrams!
Carbon monoxide and carbon monoxide. These are poisonous gases, colorless and odorless, reducing the oxygen content in the blood, which is especially dangerous for pregnant women and people with heart disease. When carbon monoxide enters the body, oxygen starvation develops due to the fact that carbon monoxide more easily combines with hemoglobin than oxygen, and is delivered with the blood to all human tissues and organs.
Ammonia. Ammonia irritates the mucous membrane of the mouth, larynx, trachea, bronchi. That’s why smokers have not uncommonly loose gums, mouth ulcers, often filled up pharynx, which leads to the occurrence of sore throats. From long-term smoking there is a narrowing of the vocal slit, there is a hoarseness of the voice.
Tar. There are over 1,000 chemicals in tar, including many irritants and at least 60 known carcinogens. In the lungs, tar settles in a viscous layer. In recent years, scientists have paid close attention to cancer-causing substances. These include benzopyrene and the radioactive isotope polonium-210. If a smoker draws smoke into his mouth and then exhales it through a handkerchief, a brown stain will remain on the white fabric. That is tobacco tar. It is particularly high in cancer-causing substances. If the ear of a rabbit is smeared several times with tobacco tar, the animal will develop a cancerous tumor.
1.3 The Mechanism of Nicotine’s Effect on Human Health
The physical and chemical mechanism of smoking is that through a lit and slowly smoldering tobacco (in a pipe, cigarette, cigarette), the smoker draws air into himself. Oxygen contained in the inhaled air, passing through a layer of smoldering tobacco, increases its combustion, and the products of combustion, along with the rest of the air enters the lungs. It usually takes 12-18 puffs to smoke a cigarette. Tobacco smoke is a peculiar physical and chemical system, consisting of air and tobacco combustion products suspended in it.
The content of harmful substances in tobacco smoke depends on the type of tobacco, methods of its preliminary processing – curing, drying, fermentation, etc., and in annual products – on the sort, humidity and even speed of smoking.
Burning tobacco produces smoke that contains many harmful substances, but nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tobacco tar are considered the most harmful.
Nicotine makes our heart beat faster, which wears it out, and most importantly, makes a person become addicted to a cigarette, get used to it and try to smoke more and more. Carbon monoxide prevents the body from getting the oxygen it needs for all its organs. The tobacco tar pollutes our lungs and makes them ill-many smokers cough often. In addition to nicotine, carbon monoxide and carcinogenic resins, the toxic components of tobacco “cocktail” include nitrogen compounds, metals (especially heavy mercury, cadmium, nickel, cobalt, etc.) and radioactive substances.
Until recently, nicotine was considered the most poisonous component of tobacco. But recent studies have allowed to take away the palm of superiority from it and give it to radioactive substances, which tobacco in large quantities “catch” from the soil, water and air, especially where there is a high background radiation.
Many chemical elements in general, and radionuclides in particular, when entering the body from the outside are not evenly distributed in it, but are concentrated in certain organs due to biochemical processes predetermined by genetics. For example, iodine accumulates in the thyroid gland, cobalt, cesium and plutonium in the liver, potassium, cobalt and cesium in the ovaries, polonium, radon and plutonium in the lungs, cesium in the kidneys, strontium and radium in the bone tissue.
Polonium-210 is unanimously recognized as extremely poisonous radioactive isotope, whose half-life period is counted in many tens and hundreds of years, which means that it may accumulate in the most diverse organs and tissues, not only destroying them, but also damaging the hereditary system. It has been calculated that in the bronchi and urine of smokers the quantity of polonium-210 is 6-7 times higher than in non-smokers.
We already know that if the source of ionizing radiation is outside the organism, we are talking about external exposure. Another method of “catching the dose” is allowing radionuclides in assimilable form to get inside the organism with the air, food and water. Then, accumulating in the critical organs, the radionuclides begin to irradiate the body from the inside, turning into radiotoxins. This is internal irradiation. In this kind of irradiation, the most dangerous are a-radiotoxins. Tobacco smoke contains radioactive substances (polonium, bismuth, cesium, lead) which, as we said, selectively accumulate in the lung tissue, spinal cord, lymph nodes and endocrine glands. They linger there for months and years, and the more years a smoker has, the more of them there are. Polonium and lead are a major cause of malignant tumors. Remember: even cigarettes with a filter do not hold dangerous isotopes.
Who among young people getting married does not dream of becoming a father or a mother? Parenthood is the highest value of family life. But, unfortunately, not everyone manages to realize their dream. There are many reasons for this, and one of them is bad habits, including smoking.
According to the World Health Organization, total mortality of smokers exceeds that of non-smokers by 30-80%, and the most significant difference is at the age of 45-54, the most valuable age in terms of professional experience and creative activity.
It is safe to say that each new puff of a cigarette shortens a person’s life by at least one breath, and each cigarette smoked shortens a person’s life by 15 minutes. “Who saw those minutes, and who calculated them?” – smokers sneer. Yes, it’s hard to show for an individual, but in the general population, smokers live significantly shorter lives than non-smokers.
The presence of polonium, radioactive lead and bismuth in tobacco smoke gives the right to believe that tobacco smoke is dangerous not only to those who smoke, but to everyone who breathes this smoke. The smoker absorbs only 28% of harmful substances contained in cigarettes, and the rest goes to those who are in the atmosphere of tobacco smoke – so called passive smokers. Therefore, dear friends, do not stand in a circle of smoking friends, do not breathe the smoky air.
Above all, do not start smoking. But if there is already a craving for a cigarette, try to get rid of this bad habit. Let’s take care of your health and the health of your loved ones. Smoking or health – your choice
1.4 The dangers of smoking for teenagers
When a person first touches a cigarette, he does not think about the serious consequences that can lead to smoking. When do teenagers start smoking? Mostly at school age. Nicotine appears in the brain tissue 7 seconds after the first puff. The brain gets used to the constant nicotine handouts, you have to “feed” the brain with nicotine to maintain normal well-being. Otherwise there is anxiety, irritability, nervousness.
Since the period of stay at school, the human body is in active formation, the harm of smoking for adolescents and young men is quite tangible. First of all, the habit slows the pace of physical development of the child. A teenager who indulges in cigarettes, characterized by thinness and an unhealthy complexion. However, these are only external manifestations of smoking. In fact, the consequences for the child’s body are much more deplorable.
From the effects of harmful substances in cigarettes, affected primarily lungs and cardiovascular system. At the stage of physical development in the child is already appears shortness of breath, cough. In addition, since the body is not sufficiently resistant to external influences, the heart also suffers.
Active hormonal changes are typical for adolescence. Therefore, the transition period is often accompanied by high or low pressure, some adjustments in the heart. Smoking aggravates the course of the transition period, making it more critical. Nicotine provokes the heart to work more actively. Thus, it wears out from a fairly young age.
Smoking has the same effect on the intellectual development of children. Since the harmful substances in tobacco smoke circulate with the blood throughout the body, they also affect the brain and the nervous system. The effects of smoking overlap, ultimately preventing a child from learning to his or her full potential. Immediately after smoking a cigarette, a teenager feels a burst of energy, which is quickly replaced by fatigue, a depressed state. It is natural that a child’s bad mood is accompanied by a desire to shirk from educational activities. Of course, it is not always about truancy. More often, the child shows low activity in class, becomes inattentive, uncoordinated, absent-minded.
Teenage smoking has a negative effect on memory and the development of basic thought processes. The more cigarettes a child consumes during the day, the worse service he does to his own intelligence. First of all, smoking reduces memory capacity. For this reason, the child can not always cope with the many subjects of the school program. In addition, logic becomes weaker, the teenager is less capable of analysis, synthesis, abstraction.
A teenager who smokes has changes in the sensitivity of the perception organs: vision, smell, hearing are impaired. In addition, tobacco smoke provokes the occurrence of diseases in the oral cavity. Caries, enamel erosion and its characteristic yellow color become a real problem for teenagers. Subsequently, they lead to the destruction of the teeth.
A child’s body usually receives slightly more harmful substances than an adult’s. This is due not only to the smaller body weight of a teenager, but also to the peculiarities of the “style” of smoking. Since this habit is usually carefully concealed from parents and teachers, the child smokes rather quickly.
Short and deep puffs contribute to penetration into the body at least 20% more harmful substances. In addition, quite often the child uses previously unsmoked tobacco products. In them the concentration of poisonous elements is even higher.
In order to detect and stop this harmful habit for a teenager in time, parents should pay more attention to their child. Of course, this does not mean that mom and dad should conduct searches in order to find tobacco products. Adults need to keep an eye on their son or daughter’s appearance and their children’s health.
1.5 Exactly how smoking affects a woman’s body
A woman’s dream and destiny is to give birth and raise healthy, strong children. On this stood and stands the world. And now it turns out that smoking undermines the foundations of that world, because children of women who smoke are born sick and weakened.
But they should already think about their own health and possible infertility at this age. The earlier a girl starts smoking, the higher is the risk of infertility or giving birth to a child with serious developmental abnormalities. The eggs of a girl who smokes accumulate substances that distort her normal genetic structure. No one knows how many and in which egg exactly the changes will occur, as well as which of them will become the “beginning” of a new person in the future. Even if a young mother is lucky and her baby is not born with a heart defect, a harelip or hydrocephalus, he will still be, may lag behind his peers in his development, suffer from hyperactivity, attention deficit or aggressiveness. All of these problems don’t seem too serious only in the absence of children, but after they are born, feeling guilty about failures or lagging behind your child’s peers will be very unpleasant.
Over the last 20 years the number of smokers among young people has increased dozens of times comparing to the time of Soviet Union and if before the biggest part of smokers were men most of them are girls now, some starting to smoke because they think it’s trendy and mature, some just starting to smoke from idleness. But don’t they understand what harm smoking does to their young, not yet fully formed body. But if with the young everything is clear-why adult women also begin to smoke, some explain it by the fact that a cigarette allows to relax, to distract from everyday life and family problems. But it’s not so it’s an illusion, a non-smoker overcomes any psychologically difficult situation, unlike the smoker. Also we want to mention the pressure of advertising, which played, probably, the decisive role in initiation and support of smoking by some part of women, it is good that now our government at last thought about its population and forbade the advertising of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks on TV. The associations between smoking and depression are especially important for women, because they are more prone to psychological distress than men.
A number of researchers have proven that women who smoke and also consume alcohol are more likely to develop oral and tongue cancer at a young age. According to the authors, this indicates that simultaneous exposure of the same cells to alcohol and tobacco smoke accelerates the process of cancer formation.
Epidemiological studies conducted in Sweden and the United States have found a correlation between smoking and cervical cancer. Women who smoke have a 3.5 times higher risk of developing preinvasive cancer than non-smokers. This risk is related to the intensity of smoking – for heavy smokers it is 12.7 times higher than for nonsmokers. The risk of severe dysplasia in smokers is 10 times higher than in nonsmokers. It is believed that the substances in tobacco smoke are absorbed by the blood and reach the cervical epithelium. Analysis has shown that both nicotine and its main metabolite cotinine are present in the cervical mucosa of female smokers. At the same time, the level of cotinine was the same as in the blood, and the amount of nicotine in the mucosa was higher than in the blood. Cervical epithelial cells are believed to be particularly sensitive during puberty, which makes smoking during this period especially dangerous.
For women under the age of 50, smoking is the greatest risk factor for developing heart disease. And the more they smoke cigarettes, the more likely they are to develop heart disease, even in the absence of other risk factors. If women in this age group smoke about 2 packs of cigarettes a day, the risk of disease increases sevenfold. And if there are additional risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high blood cholesterol, and heredity, the risk of developing heart disease increases even more.
CHAPTER II. METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS OF THE STUDY
2.1 Questionnaires.
The purpose of the study was to present a complete and reliable characterization of the problem in our school. The decision was to conduct a questionnaire survey among students in different grades. The following classes were covered, students in grades 7 to 11. All in all, 30 people were questioned (attachment 1) 17 girls and 13 boys (attachment 2)Age: 17 years 4 people, 16 years 7 people, 15 years 12 people, 14 years 3 people, 13 years 4 people (attachment 3).To the question “How do you spend your free time most often?” In a sports section, in a hobby group – chose 11 people. Spending time with friends – 10 people chose. Watching TV – chosen by 5 people. Hobbies – chosen by 4 people (Annex 4). To the question “How do you think smoking affects your health?” Slows down growth – chosen by 2 people. Yellowing of the teeth – chosen by 15 people. Bad breath – chosen by 3 people. Lungs are collapsing – two people chose. Deteriorating memory – chosen by 5 people. Heart deteriorates – chosen by 2 people. No effect on health – chosen by 1 person (Appendix 5).To the question “What are the sources of your knowledge about smoking?” In the lessons at school – chose 2 people. In the media – 15 people chose. Told by adults – chose 3 people. From personal observation – two people chose. From their own experience – chose 5 people (Annex 6). To the question, “At what age did you try to smoke? “2 persons, 10 years 2 persons, 12 years 2 persons, 13 years 2 persons, 14 years 1 person, 15 years 1 person, 20 persons did not smoke (Appendix 7).To the question “What was the reason for the first try of smoking?” Didn’t try it – 16 people chose it. To feel like an adult – three people chose. To please a girl/boy – picked 1 person. Out of curiosity – chose 10 people (Annex 8) To the question “If you smoke, how much?” turned out 3 cigarettes – 2 people, 4 cigarettes – 2 people. (Annex 9) To the question “What do you think “makes you” smoke at the present time? “Not smoking – chose 21 people. To feel like an adult – picked out 4 people. Got sucked in, can’t quit – picked 2 people. To like it – picked 1 person. Other – picked 2 people.(Appendix 10). When asked “How do you rate the anti-smoking activities?” “5” was chosen by 10 people. “4” – chose 5 people. “3” – chose 9 people. “2” – chose 6 people (Appendix 11).To the question “What anti-smoking measures, in your opinion, should be taken?” Banning the advertising of tobacco products – chosen by 10 people. Educational activities – chosen by 5 people. Ban on smoking in public places – chose 9 people (Annex 12).To the question “Do you want to know more about the effects of smoking on the human body? “Yes – chose 9 persons. No – 21 persons chose (Annex 13).
Conclusion .
After studying different sources of information, I found out that tobacco was introduced to Russia by Peter I. Smoking was resisted, but gradually it became a common habit. Each year a lot of money is spent on buying tobacco. Advertising for tobacco and related products costs incomparably more money than anti-tobacco campaigns.
2. The mechanism of nicotine action on human health has been revealed. A surfactant film protects the lungs from various substances, but is virtually defenseless against the many chemically heterogeneous components of tobacco smoke.
3. 17% of the surveyed students in our school smoke. The main reason for smoking is “to feel like an adult.”
4. The conducted questionnaire survey showed a negative attitude of the pupils of the school to smoking
Conclusion
It is necessary to carry out active work to promote a healthy lifestyle among students. The desire to maintain good health is an important social need of a person, a necessary condition for a full life, high creative activity, happiness. Everyone who smokes should understand that he ruins not only his health, but also the health of those around him!
