ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607150028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WILLIAM F. HARRISON
MOST OF us in medicine now accept that tobacco is associated with major health consequences and constitutes the No. 1 health problem in the United States.
What smokers have not yet come to terms with is that if they continue smoking, the probability of developing one or more of the major complications of smoking is 100 percent. It absolutely will happen. They will develop chronic bronchitis, laryngitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis and some degree of emphysema. It is also highly probable that they will develop serious disease in the arteries of all vital organs, including the brain and heart, markedly increasing their risk of heart attack and stroke.
If they continue, they increase the probability of developing cancer of the lips, gums, tongue, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchi and lungs, of the bladder, cervix, gallbladder and other organs. Smoking contributes to rapid aging of the skin and connective tissues - women and men who smoke usually have the skin age of a person 10 to 20 years older than one who doesn't smoke, given the same degree of exposure to the sun.
About 415,000 people die prematurely each year in the United States as a result of smoking - the equivalent of 18 747s crashing every week with no survivors. Many of these victims die after long and excruciating illnesses, burdens to themselves, their families and society. The cost of this misery is incalculable, but we do know that the tobacco industry grosses about $50 billion a year from the agonies it inflicts.
How does all this damage come about?
In normal lungs, the trachea and bronchi - the large and small tubes leading to the alveoli (the tiny sacs that do the actual work of the lungs) - are lined with a film of tissue that is one cell layer thick. The surface of these cells is covered with tiny, finger-like structures called cilia. These cilia beat constantly in a waving motion, which moves small particles and toxic substances out of the lung and into the back of the throat where they are swallowed.
In a smoker or someone like a coal miner, who constantly breaths in large amounts of toxic substances, many of the cilia soon disappear. If exposure continues, some ciliated cells die and are replaced by squamous cells, the same type that form the skin. Without the cleansing function of the ciliated cells, toxic materials and particles are breathed further into the lungs, staying longer in contact with all the tissue. Each group of ciliated cells killed and replaced by squamous cells decreases by a certain fraction the lungs' ability to cleanse themselves.
As this occurs, the amount of damage done by each cigarette increases to a greater and greater degree. By the time one has been a pack-a-day smoker for 10 years or so, extensive damage already has been done. By 20 years, much of the damage is irreversible and progresses more rapidly. After 10 years of smoking, each cigarette may do as much damage to the body as three or more packs did when a smoker first started.
The longer one smokes, the harder it gets to quit. Smoking is one of the most addictive of human habits, perhaps as addicting as crack cocaine or heroin. One has to quit every day, and there are no magic pills or crutches that make stopping easy. It is tough to do. Only those who keep trying ever quit. And even those who have smoked for only a short time or few cigarettes a day will probably find it difficult to stop.
But the sooner a smoker makes this self-commitment, the more probable it is that he or she will quit before having done major damage to the body.
William F. Harrison, an obstetrician and gynecologist, practices at the Fayetteville Women's Clinic in Fayetteville, Ark.
- Los Angeles Times
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB