Smoking is the act of inhaling smoke from burning tobacco and is a negative habit that continues to increase despite known health risks. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals including tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde that severely impact health. Tar accumulates in the lungs over time, making breathing difficult and increasing risk of lung cancer. Nicotine is highly addictive and causes increased heart rate and blood pressure. Carbon monoxide reduces oxygen in the bloodstream, damaging cells. Long-term, smoking damages the heart and lungs, limits activities, and increases risk of many diseases including cancer.

1. Nabila Syuhada Mohd Kamal Azmy. 5K2.
Smoke: Silent Killer
Smoking is the act of inhaling smoke from burning tobacco. It is a negative habit which
keeps increasing among the world populations despite them knowing the bad effects of
smoking. Yet more companies start marketing their own cigarette products as it is a profitable
market. Cigarettes now have nice-scented smoke to avoid uncomfortableness towards passive
smoker. This is, however, is not the excuse for us to deny the fact that smoking kills people.
Cigarette smoke contains more than 4000 chemicals including tar, nicotine, carbon
monoxide, acetone, benzene and formaldehyde that affect our health dreadfully.
The first effect that I am concern on explaining is the blackened of the lungs. Tar will be
inhaled along with smoke into the respiratory system from the nose to the lungs. After some
time, tobacco tar will accumulate along the respiratory system and affect lungs the worst.
Lungs are badly affected as it is where the gaseous exchange takes place. Most tar will
deposit at the bronchioles and alveoli. This individual will have breathing difficulty as the
gaseous exchange cannot take place efficiently. He or she will have a hard time playing
sports and doing strenuous activity. Tar in tobacco smoke is one of the carcinogens that cause
lung cancer.
Next, nicotine in cigarette smoke is a chemical which will be absorbed into the bloodstream
and transported to the whole body. Nicotine causes smoking to be addictive. For that reason,
individual that wish to stop smoking needs to undergo doctor’s suggested treatment or
gradually taking lesser doses of nicotine daily to overcome the addiction. Nicotine is also a
stimulant that makes heart beats faster and constricts the blood vessels. This causes heart to
pump harder and thus increases blood pressure. Heart disease is very common among active
smokers. Besides that, nicotine restricts the movement of cilia in the lungs as well which
troubles the lungs to get rid of the tar.
Finally, the heat and dryness of smoke irritate lungs and can lead to laryngitis. Laryngitis
makes speaking difficult and painful. Also, carbon monoxide contained in the smoke binds to
haemoglobins in the red blood cells to form carboxyhaemoglobin and takes the binding sites
for oxygen. Fewer amounts of oxygen binds to red blood cells adversely affect the cell
respiration process. Needed oxygen cannot be transported to body cells thus reducing aerobic
respiration (respiration in present of oxygen). Following, nitrogen dioxide from cigarette
smoke dissolves in the mucus forming acidic medium which can erode the lung tissue.
Besides tar, 3, 4-benzo-(α)-pyrene in cigarette smoke is also a carcinogenic chemical that
causes cancer.
Last but not least, smoking affects our health negatively. It damages the heart and lungs. Life
processes such as circulatory and respiratory systems are ruined. Smoking limits daily
activities as smoker will get tired easily. Smokers are exposed to many types of diseases from
breathing difficulties to the deadly cancer. This habit causes more negative effects compared
to positive impacts. The society should discourage smoking to all walks of life by having ‘No
Smoking’ campaigns and exposure to the youngsters about the effect of smoking. Hopefully,
the number of smokers will drop off with actions taken by the society.