Through the use of cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco, nicotine is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the world. Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death.

Research shows that smoking threatens not only your good health but additionally makes you poorer. It may be that smokers spend as much as others on everything else, and pay for smoking out of potential savings.

Nicotine is absorbed readily from tobacco smoke in the lungs, and it does not matter whether the tobacco smoke is from cigarettes, cigars, or pipes. Nicotine also is absorbed readily when tobacco is chewed. With regular use of tobacco, levels of nicotine accumulate in the body during the day and persist overnight. Thus, daily smokers or chewers are exposed to the effects of nicotine for 24 hours each day.

Addiction to nicotine results in withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to stop smoking. Although some people try to make their smoking habit safer by smoking fewer cigarettes, most smokers find that hard to do. Research has found that even smoking as few as 1 to 4 cigarettes a day can have serious health consequences, including an increased risk of heart disease and a higher risk of dying at an earlier age.

You will find more information on this timely topic in the article Smoking hurts wealth as well as health that you will find attached with our 48th Progressive Newsletter.

Some people think that switching from high-tar and high-nicotine cigarettes to those with low tar and nicotine makes smoking safer, but this is not true. When people switch to brands with lower tar and nicotine ("light"), they often end up smoking more cigarettes, or more of each cigarette, to get the same nicotine dose as before.

Tobacco use accounts for about one third of all cancer deaths in the United States. Smoking causes almost 90% of lung cancers. Smoking also causes cancers of the larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), esophagus, and bladder, and contributes to the development of cancers of the pancreas, cervix, kidney, and stomach; it is also linked to the development of some leukemias. Cigars, pipes, and spit tobacco all cause cancers, too. There is no safe way to use tobacco.

Having in mind this information and knowing that smoking could threaten your wealth as well as your health, should make you much more wise in issues relevant to smoking. And avoiding smoking is beneficial not only for you but as well for everybody around you.

Takis A. Haggiandreou
Director
 

Back to the top