Tobacco smoking and its impact on the micro-environment

ABSTRACT

Statistical data have been presented to show that cultivation and manufacture of tobacco has, as an economic activity of the country, recorded a 20% reduction in the production of cigarettes and also in its imports. The 70.000 tens of tobacco grown in Pakistan provides six to seven billion lethal doses to its sixty million smokers. The intoxication symptoms enjoyed by smokers have been discussed. It has been suggested that they are psychological as well as result of interaction of the dry distillation products of tobacco with the respiratory system in the micro-environment. These products include carbon monoxide, hydrocyanic acid, nitrogen oxide, ammonia, pyridine and tar besides nicotine. The stresses created in the micro-environment surface up in the form of circulatory and intestinal disturbances. Nicotine interacts in the micro-environment [1] with the ganglia cells of the autonomous nervous system and creates a stimulating effect followed by depression [2] with the gastro-intestinal canal to create sympatheticotropic effects resulting in intestinal movements ad [3] with the sympathetic nervous system to effect gastric secretion. The other products of decomposition also react with the circulatory system to decrease the oxygen carrying capacity of blood through the interaction of [i] carbon monoxide to form carboxyhaemoglobin, and [ii] of nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cyanides, and other decomposition products to form methaemoglobin and [iii] the inhibition of carbonic anhydrase activity to create an acid-base imbalance in the circulatory system. Hot fumes containing ammonia, methanol and organic acids inhaled during smoking create irritation in the micro-environment and a burning sensation in the mucosa of mouth and throat. Chronic irritation can create a permanently damaged site in the respiratory tract. Lung cancer by smoking has been suggested to be due to tar depositing at the sites in the micro-environment which have been dehydrated by the hot vapours. The increase in cancer cases can be attributed to changes in lifestyle and smoking is one such change. Strong social pressure may reverse the degradation process and perhaps this is one of the reasons for the decrease in the production of tobacco manufactures in the country