How Harmful Smoking Tobacco Can Be: A Few Insights

Tobacco is especially cultivated for its leaves. Once grown to perfect size, the leaves are dried and fermented to use them in tobacco products. Tobacco contains nicotine, which a component leading to addiction. Nicotine is the component which makes people addicted to cigarettes. Tobacco has many other harmful components which are already present or created by burning it.

People consumes tobacco by smoking, chewing, or sniffing. Cigars, cigarettes, and bidis are the smoked tobacco products. Chewing tobacco, dip, snuff, and snus are the products that can be chewed and sniffed.

Major Risk Factors of Tobacco Consumption

Tobacco consists of many harmful chemicals which may cause severe diseases such as cancer, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis.

Smoking may also be the causes of different types of cancers, leukemia, Type 2 Diabetes, cataracts, and pneumonia. Among all types of tobacco products, the smokeless tobacco enhance the danger of cancer.

However, it’s a case of concern that despite all these risks of tobacco consumption, the global tobacco market is experiencing a rise in recent years.

Some of the harmful effects of tobacco consumption are mentioned below:

Effects on Lungs

Smoking of tobacco damages the airways and the small air bags in the lungs. The damage begins as soon as the person starts smoking and it worsens as the habit becomes constant and more frequent. It takes many years till the damage becomes noticeable and diagnosed.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

COPD is considered as one of the major causes of death in the United States. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema both come under this disease. Although most of the COPD patients suffer from both of these conditions, severity of each of them differs from one to another.

In this disease, as the small airways are damaged, it becomes hard for the lungs to give oxygen to the rest of the body.                

The early symptoms of COPD may include wheezing noises in the chest, breathlessness, and coughing up mucus (phlegm). If a person does not stop smoking, COPD gets worse as time pass.  Another concerning fact is that there is no definite cure for COPD till now, so one must stay away from smoking tobacco.

Cardiovascular Diseases

Smoking tobacco also causes cardiovascular disease, which increases risk of stroke and heart disease. Coronary heart disease is the main reason of heart attacks which is caused by over-consumption of tobacco.

High blood pressure, lower ability to exercise, and blood clotting are caused by smoking cigarettes. Smoking habit is also responsible for lower level of HDL (good) cholesterol in the blood. These are the main risk factors for strokes and heart attacks.

Other Health Effects of Tobacco Smoking

Smoking tobacco also affect a person’s health in many other ways. Some of the many harmful effects of smoking cigars are mentioned below:

• Higher risk of gum disease and tooth loss
• Dropped immune system function
• Risk of type 2 diabetes
• Higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis
• Increased risk for age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness
• Diminished sense of smell and taste
• Untimely aging of the skin
• Tainted teeth and bad breath
• Poorer bone density (thinner bones), higher risk for broken bones,
• Increased risk for cataracts
• Longer time to heal wounds

Covid-19 Impact on Tobacco Market

The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in the last months of 2019 has been proved to be devastating for most of the industries. The governments across the nations have imposed restrictions in travel and social gathering and temporary shutdown of manufacturing industries. Because of the restrictions on supply chain, the tobacco manufacturers faced difficulty in import and export of raw materials as well as end products, which has impacted the industry in a negative way. Apart from that, because of shutting down of shops and markets, the demand of tobacco products has downgraded.

The above reflection clarifies that the pandemic has been a massive hit on the tobacco market size. However, with the ease in the restrictions in different parts of the world has increased the demand and production of the tobacco products. Moreover, the major companies of the industry are working on the development of new products with different flavors and textures.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.