Tobacco, Smoking, and E-cigarettes
Much of what you need to know for my class about tobacco and smoking can be found on pages 274-291 of your Teen Health textbook. There are several topics, though, that are insufficiently addressed in your textbook. Those topics will be covered here.
The Respiratory System
Pages 278-281 of Teen Health discuss the respiratory system. In our last unit, you learned a little about the respiratory system when you studied the alveoli in the lungs and how they exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the blood using the process of diffusion. In Teen Health, the structures contained in the respiratory system are named and explained, including the trachea and the bronchi.
In the illustration on page 278, look at the description under the heading "Nose/Mouth." Do you see the reference to cilia, the tiny hairlike projections that trap dirt and particles from the air? Those cilia don't just line the nose. Cilia are also found inside the trachea. In the trachea, cilia move back and forth to sweep dirt and bacteria out. If the cilia do not work properly, the dirt and bacteria can move into the lungs and cause lung damage or disease. Some of the chemicals that are found in tobacco smoke kill cilia. Once the cilia are dead, your lungs become more likely to be damaged not only by tobacco smoke, but by other pollutants in the air.
Here are two links that will help you to understand the importance of cilia and how they work:
If you earned an A on the respiratory system test, then you probably understand how it works and will be able to understand how smoking can damage it. If you did not earn an A, then you need to review all of the information in the Respiratory System section of this Online Textbook. Be sure to pay particularly careful attention to the Bozeman Science video.
Nicotine is an Addictive Drug
Most people know that drugs are something to be avoided. Most people know that many drugs are addictive, which means that it is very hard to stop using drugs once you have started. Please understand that addiction is not just a habit. While it is true that habits can be very hard to break, a habit does not actually change your brain. Addictive drugs actually change the way the brain works. It is these changes in the brain that makes it so hard to stop using an addictive drug.
We read an article in class about how nicotine works. I know that some of the information might have been hard to understand; that's why we worked on it all together! I have included the document we read in class as an attachment at the bottom of this section of the Online Textbook. You should review the information in the How Nicotine Works article (a copy is posted at the end) before the test, because you will be expected to know many of the facts about nicotine that are discussed in the article.
Cigarette "Alternatives"
In the past few years, a new way of obtaining nicotine has exploded into our lives: the e-cigarette or electronic cigarette. Electronic cigarettes are a new way to get nicotine, which is the addictive drug contained in tobacco. Many claims are being made about electronic cigarettes. The most important claim is that electronic cigarettes are safe. If you try to research this topic yourself, you will find many websites that explain why electronic cigarettes are safe.
One claim that is often made is that the "vapor" produced by an electronic cigarette does not contain the same dangerous chemicals that are contained in tobacco smoke. First, you need to understand the difference between smoke and vapor. If you set something on fire, the fire will produce smoke. This is what occurs with a cigarette or a cigar. The tobacco contained in the cigarette or cigar is set on fire. It produces smoke. The smoke is inhaled into the lungs. Once the smoke is in the alveoli, the chemicals that are in the smoke, including nicotine, diffuse into the capillaries and are carried all around the body. In an e-cigarette, there is no fire so there is no smoke. Instead, a liquid that contains nicotine is heated. When the liquid gets hot enough, it turns to steam just like water turns to steam if you boil it. This vapor contains the nicotine along with other chemicals. When the vapor is inhaled into the lungs, the nicotine and the other chemicals contained in the vapor diffuse into the capillaries and are carried all over the body.
You have already learned that there are over 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. Many of these chemicals are dangerous. Well, what about the vapor from electronic cigarettes? The people who advertise electronic cigarettes want you to believe that there are no dangerous chemicals contained in the vapor. Is this true? The short answer is "no." The chemicals that are in the vapor produced by electronic cigarettes are different from the ones produced by burning tobacco, but they are still dangerous. Several carcinogens (chemicals known to cause cancer) have been detected in electronic cigarette vapor, including acrolein, formaldehyde, and diethylene glycol. In fact, the levels of acrolein found in some electronic cigarettes is even higher than the levels found in tobacco cigarettes.
If you were to look at the label of an e-cigarette or the "juice" that is used in refillable e-cigarettes, you'll see the ingredients. You will not find formaldehyde in the list of ingredients. You will not find acrolein. You will not find diethylene glycol. So, are the manufacturers lying about what is in their product? Well, maybe. But even if they are telling the truth, you need to understand a few things about chemistry. You see, adding heat to certain chemicals changes them. So even if an e-cigarette contains no acrolein, heating up the "safe" ingredients causes some of them to change into other chemicals which are toxic. Other times, toxic chemicals are created when two or more "safe" chemicals come into contact with one another. You see these kinds of chemical reactions all the time in real life. A perfectly good piece of metal, if left exposed to oxygen, gets rusty. All that is happening is that the iron in the metal is combining with the oxygen in the air. The oxygen chemically combines with the iron to produce something new -- iron oxide -- which you know as rust.
Tobacco cigarettes have been popular since the 1800s. Scientists, though, did not make the connection between tobacco smoke and lung cancer until about 1940. Electronic cigarettes were invented in 2003. In other words, they have not been around long enough for science to have sufficiently studied them. In a short time, we have already found several dangerous chemicals in electronic cigarette vapor. You can see some of them by downloading the E-cig Chemicals document posted at the end of this section of the Online Textbook.
So what about all the websites that claim that electronic cigarettes are safe? Are they lying? You should be able to answer this question for yourself by looking at who sponsors the website. You will find that nearly all of the websites that say that electronic cigarettes are safe are sponsored by... you guessed it, they are sponsored by individuals and companies that make their money from electronic cigarettes. They are lying the same way that tobacco companies lied when they denied that cigarettes are dangerous.
Suppose scientists are able to confirm that electronic cigarettes are safer than tobacco cigarettes. Wouldn't that make them okay? Of course not! Is it safer to jump out of an airplane with a parachute filled with holes or no parachute at all? I think we know what will happen either way.
Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine. Smoking electronic cigarettes will get you addicted to nicotine the same way that tobacco cigarettes will. And, once you are addicted to nicotine, it is extremely difficult to quit using it. As you already learned from your textbook, nicotine itself is dangerous to your health. Why do something that will lead to addiction?
It is important to understand the dangers of electronic cigarettes, because they are allowed to advertise. You may find yourself in an environment similar to the one I was in when I was growing up. Every time you watch television, you will see advertisements for electronic cigarettes. The people who are smoking them will be good looking. They will be having fun. They will be stylish and they will be popular. They will do their best to convince you that electronic cigarettes are the "way to go." I encourage you to do your own research, and then bring your results to class. I will show you how to evaluate the information you find so that you can see for yourself the way that the tobacco companies continue to tell lies to sell their dangerous products.
Here are links to two different commercials. The first is a cigarette commercial from 1968 when it was still legal to advertise cigarettes on television. The second is a new commercial for an electronic cigarette. Please watch these two commercials with the following questions in mind:
- What benefits of the product does each commercial focus on?
- What negatives of the product are disclosed in each commercial?
- Based on what you know, which commercial is more truthful?
- Based on the characters in each commercial, which are you more likely to believe?
Click here to access the 1968 cigarette commercial.
Click here to access the 2014 E-cigarette commercial.
Study Links
Study Guide - Please see the Study Guide attached below.
Practice Test - Coming Soon