Social Focus: Health Effects of Smoking

Richard Diongson

11 years ago

Many issues involving the youth had been driven out. Youth are hooked in all grounds, with the great influence brought by this modernized world. Exposed to pleasure as well as to violence. Likely to be updated in everything that is happening in the society, involved in the different kinds of group (wether it’s bad or good), and a lot more. Name it!

What a sad thing to know that teens nowadays are very different. It is hard to believe that the youth is considered endangered species not by means of losing it’s kind but by means of losing hope for the future.

A typical example was scene I happened to witness yesterday. As I went down the way where I waited for a ride, I noticed teens/students smoking despite of the implementation of The Comprehensive Anti-Smoking Ordinance in the city.

According to studies, smoking causes the deaths of the many men each year. Historically, men have been more likely to smoke than women.

Health Effects of Smoking Among Young People

Among young people, the short-term health consequences of smoking include respiratory and nonrespiratory effects, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term health consequences of youth smoking are reinforced by the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood.

Cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than those persons who have never smoked.
Smoking reduces the rate of lung growth.
In adults, cigarette smoking causes heart disease and stroke. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke.
Smoking hurts young people’s physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance—even among young people trained in competitive running.
On average, someone who smokes a pack or more of cigarettes each day lives 7 years less than someone who never smoked.
The resting heart rates of young adult smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than nonsmokers.
Smoking at an early age increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke.
Teenage smokers suffer from shortness of breath almost three times as often as teens who don’t smoke, and produce phlegm more than twice as often as teens who don’t smoke.
Teenage smokers are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.
Teens who smoke are three times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. Smoking is associated with a host of other risky behaviors, such as fighting and engaging in unprotected sex.