Ciggyfree Blog

“Four million people die from tobacco related diseases yearly. This is equivalent to twenty-seven 747 airplanes full of passengers crashing every day.”

“Every eight seconds someone in the world dies from a tobacco-related disease.”

“The number of tobacco related deaths are estimated to increase to 10 million in 2030; 7 million deaths will occur in developing countries, including the African region.”

“Smokers and non-smokers are exposed to over 4,700 toxic substances in tobacco smoke and more than 50 of them are known human carcinogens, meaning cancer causing.”

~WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Regional Office For Africa

The stranglehold of nicotine addiction leads to more than four million smoking-related deaths each year. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have now explained two roots of that addiction. The discoveries may offer new hope not just for smokers, but eventually also for sufferers of Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating movement disorder that affects some 40 million people worldwide.

Researchers have known for decades that chronic exposure to nicotine increases the number of nicotine receptors–molecules that are activated by binding to the drug–on nerve cells. The binding of nicotine to these receptors, and in particular to one specific subunit known as alpha4, enhances the release of a pleasure-causing neurotransmitter called dopamine.

Smoking significantly increases the risk for head and neck cancers for both men and women, regardless of the anatomic site. Published in the journal Cancer, a large, prospective study confirmed strong associations between current and past cigarette smoking and malignancies of the head and neck in both genders.

Cancers of the head and neck include cancers of the larynx, nasal passages/nose, oral cavity, and pharynx. Worldwide, more than 500,000 people are diagnosed with these cancers every year. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), men are more than three times more likely than women to be diagnosed with head and neck cancer and almost twice as likely to die from their disease.

While tobacco use has long been identified as an important risk factor for head and neck cancers, the new study finds that smoking plays a greater role in the development of head and neck cancer in women than men.