Smoking Introduction

While cigarettes account for the bulk of tobacco consumption there are also cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff and chewing tobacco. Tobacco comes from the nicotiana tabacum plant and is grown around the world, with an estimated 8000 million pounds (3628 million kg) produced annually. The major active ingriedient in tobacco is nicotine, a stimulant that acts on the body by causing it to increase its production of adrenalin, a chemical produced by the body in response to stress, fear or excitement, which acts by increasing the heart, pulse and breathing rates. Every time you draw on a cigarette it delivers a burst of nicotine to the body and brain and therefore stimulates adrenaline - giving smokers a buzz or high. By working in this way on the nervous sytem, nicotine can reduce tiredness and improve concentration, but you should never forget it is also the reason why smokers become dependent on tobacco. Smoking also provides rituals - lighting up, sharing a cigarette with friends - as well as providing a diversion in a stressful situation by giving smokers something to do with their hands. Nonetheless, smoking is still thought by many as sexy, cool, stress-relieving, a confidence boost, a tool with which to meet people and a tradition after a shag. Smoking tobacco (in varying forms) has a long history but it is only in the last century, with the advent of the cigarette, that it achieved its status as a social activity (even to the extent of being promoted by doctors as a remedy to breathing problems in the 1950s). Today, however, smoking is widely accepted as being a major health hazard, with tobacco companies paying out billions in lawsuits to people who have suffered lung disease and cancer as a result of their habit. The damaging effects of smoking are often gradual, taking many years to appear, which is why the harm it causes can often seem inconsequential to young smokers. What's in a puff? Smoke enters the lungs as gases and solid particles which condense to form a thick brown tar; this lines the passages down which the smoke travels and then collects in the lungs. Tobacco is made from several hundred chemical compounds that fall into five main categories:

Nicotine - one cigarette can deliver between 0.5mg and 2mg depending on how it was cured and how it was smoked (up to 90% if inhaled, and 10% if not).

Gases - carbon monoxide at 300-400 times the level considered safe in industry and hydrogen cyanide at 160 times the safe level.

Carcinogens, or chemicals capable of causing cancer - there are anything between 10-15 in a single cigarette.

Co-carcinogens, or chemicals which don't cause cancers directly but which accelerate the growth of cancer.

Irritants - substances which disturb and inflame the bronchial passages to the lungs, increase mucus secretion and damage the process for getting rid of it. Today, the majority of cigarettes are filter-tipped which removes many of the harmful substances from cigarette smoke. Low-tar and low nicotine cigarettes will reduce the amount of nicotine and tar entering the body but some filter-tipped cigarettes allow more poisonous carbon monoxide into the lungs. This online advice guide is an extract from the book TOGETHER, by kind permission of Patriic Gayle and Gay Times Books. The book itself is over 300 pages long and contains:

several chapters more useful advice and information

more in-depth information in some chapters

more pictures and tables

further contacts at the end of each chapter

a comprehensive listing of gay and health organisations Described by Qx magazine as a 'Gay Bible', Together Book is a practical reference work no bookshelf should be without.

Available from Prowler Stores and all good bookshops, or click the link below for price and ordering details.

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