Smoking has been accepted into culture, in various art forms, and has developed many distinct, and often conflicting or mutually exclusive, meanings depending on time, place and the practitioners of smoking. Pipe smoking, until recently one of the most common forms of smoking, is today often associated with solemn contemplation, old age and is often considered quaint and archaic. Cigarette smoking, which did not begin to become widespread until the late 19th century, has more associations of modernity and the faster pace of the industrialized world. Cigars have been, and still are, associated with masculinity, power and is an iconic image associated with the stereotypical capitalist. Smoking in public has for a long time been something reserved for men and when done by women has been associated with promiscuity. In Japan during the Edo period, prostitutes and their clients would often approach one another under the guise of offering a smoke and the same was true for 19th century Europe.

Everyone knows that smoking can cause cancer when you get older, but did you know that it also has bad effects on your body right now? A cigarette contains about 4000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous. Some of the worst ones are:

• Nicotine: a deadly poison.
• Arsenic: used in rat poison.
• Methane: a component of rocket fuel.
• Ammonia: found in floor cleaner.
• Cadmium: used in batteries.
• Carbon Monoxide: part of car exhaust.
• Formaldehyde: used to preserve body tissue.
• Butane: lighter fluid.
• Hydrogen Cyanide: the poison used in gas chambers.

Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, small amounts of these chemicals get into your blood through your lungs. They travel to all the parts of your body and cause harm.

What do all these chemicals do to my body?

As you might imagine, even small amounts of the poisonous chemicals in cigarettes can do bad things to your body. Here are some facts about what smoking cigarettes does to you:

• Smoking makes you smell bad, gives you wrinkles, stains your teeth, and gives you bad breath.
• Smokers get 3 times more cavities than non-smokers.
• Smoking lowers your hormone levels.
• When smokers catch a cold, they are more likely than non-smokers to have a cough that lasts a long time. They are also more likely than non-smokers to get bronchitis and pneumonia.
• Teen smokers have smaller lungs and a weaker heart than teen non-smokers. They also get sick more often than teens who don’t smoke.

What happens to your lungs when you  smoke?

Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, you kill some of the air sacks in your lungs, called alveoli. These air sacks are where the oxygen that you breathe in is transferred into your blood. Alveoli don’t grow back, so when you destroy them, you have permanently destroyed part of your lungs. This means that you won’t do as well in activities where breathing is important, like sports, dancing, or singing.

Smoking paralyzes the cilia that line your lungs. Cilia are little hair-like structures that move back and forth to sweep particles out of your lungs. When you smoke, the cilia can’t move and can’t do their job. Therefore, dust, pollen, and other things that you inhale sit in your lungs and build up. In addition, there are lots of particles in smoke that get into your lungs. Since your cilia are paralyzed because of the smoke and cannot clean them out, the particles sit in your lungs and form tar.