Alcohol and cigarettes – faulty connection

Dangerous Smoking

Have you ever wondered why during a noisy party after a smoked cigarette your hand automatically reaches for a glass? It turns out that this fact has a scientific explanation. American scientists have found out that nicotine significantly slows the alcohol assimilation of the body, causing a deceptive impression that “it is not enough alcohol”. And the alcoholic drinks “stuck” in the stomach, entering the blood only in small portions, and the desired intoxication did not come. Scientists emphasize that the combined usage of alcohol and nicotine is the reason of alcohol poisoning, which can have very unpleasant consequences. Under the influence of nicotine a person is not able to assess the strength and feel when to stop. The combination of alcohol and cigarettes is especially dangerous for teenagers: it is fraught with chronic liver and stomach disease, the searchers warn. As the American actress Bankhead Tallulah advised “never indulge in two vices at once.”

Passive smoking – a scourge of small children

It turns out that passive smoking is more dangerous than it was previously thought. By long-term observations, it has a disastrous impact on children, and the less the child’s age, the greater the degree of exposure. The American scientists have refuted the opinion that there was a safe level of exposure of the smoke on the body. Specialists pay special attention to the need of prevention of tobacco exposure indoors, even if they are properly equipped with ventilation systems. According to the Department of Healthy Lifestyle in the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (USA) children breathe more frequently than adults and therefore they inhale more tobacco smoke. The young body is constantly growing and developing, and the cigarette smoke substances slow down the process of cell growth. With regular action of nicotine smoke the child may have asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and middle ear disease, and the healing process is slowed down. The smoke-filled room is also taken into consideration.
According to experts, ventilation and air conditioning systems reduce the risk of such effects only marginally. As paediatricians announce the passive smoking increases the sickness rate of children, and parents should know about it. Some countries completely prohibit smoking in public places, as in Scotland, for example. But in America, in the states of Arkansas and Louisiana, a ban was imposed on smoking in cars in the presence of children. Moreover, there will be a criminal responsibility for smoking pregnant women in some states.

The scientists think that nearly a billion people could die from diseases caused by smoking this century.

Smoking tobacco will lead to the untimely death of about 1 billion people, according to a number of studies presented at an international conference on disease, held in Washington. The reports were prepared by the World Health Organization, Community Cancer Control in the United States and the International Union Against Cancer. “Even if the consumption of tobacco products will be decreased throughout the world, the number of smokers will rise due to increasing of world population,” – noted the director of the Institute of Public Health Georgia State University, Michael Eriksen. According to the data given in the study of “Atlas of cancer”, smoking causes the death of one out of every fifth who died from cancer. At the same time in 2002, lung cancer was the most common type among 10.9 million patients. In 2003, there were approximately 1.3 billion smokers on our planet, and about 1 million of them are men, but in recent years it is more popular among women.

Smoking may cause blindness

British health experts insist that there will be the warning about the blindness which can be caused by smoking on cigarette packs. The investigation has shown (about 5,000 patients took part in it from the EU) that smoking (including passive) is the cause of age-related macular degeneration – a disease that causes loss of central vision – in nearly 30% of cases. Currently in Britain about half a million people suffer from this disease. “This fact is proved, as that fact that smoking causes different lung diseases. But, apparently, the fact of possible problems with lungs is not big argument for smokers to make them quit smoking. Doctors believe that the possibility of losing sight will make smokers think seriously about the problem. Nowadays there are such warnings on the cigarette packs in Britain as: “Smoking kills!” and “Smoking can cause impotence”.