What does cigarette smoking actually lead to? Generally, one would say that smoking has various effects on the body. As a society, we tend to ignore the many risks associated with cigarette smoking. Smoking may lead to many problems such as birth defects, cancer, as well as economic problems.
Pregnant mothers who smoke birth children with a variety of birth defects and or health problems. Women who smoke during their pregnancy significantly increase their chances of having children with low-birth weights. Infants who are born from mothers who do smoke are 70 to 250 gm lighter than children born from mothers who do not smoke (Van Lancker 230). The cause of this one might say is that the carbon monoxide from the smoke passes freely from the mothers circulatory system into the baby’s bloodstream, and tissues therefore decreasing the
The health care system is swamped from the numerous amounts of people it treats for related cancers caused by smoking. Currently each working citizen contributes 2.9% of his or her salary to fund Medicare. Tobacco is the single most expensive cost item on the Medicare budget. The direct cost of tobacco use is approximately fifty billion dollars each year. These costs include hospitalization, doctor bills, medications, and home and nursing home care. It is estimated that by the year 2010 the diseases caused by tobacco will cost Medicare around eight hundred billion dollars. Not to mention the five hundred and fifty-two million dollars spent on accidental fire deaths caused by smokers (Furguson 1998).
Cigarette smoking may lead to various forms of cancer. One type of cancer commonly associated with smoking is lung cancer. Lung cancer may be the leading cause to respiratory di