Smoking is, among others, a cause of serious diseases such as lung cancer and pulmonary heart diseases. It is fairly common knowledge that if you smoke, you may stand a higher risk of contracting these serious illnesses – which drives our often stated position that we market cigarettes only to adults who have made the decision to smoke and are aware of the risks associated with smoking.
Most smokers perceive the immediate effect of smoking as something positive; a stimulant that makes them seem to feel more alert, clearheaded and able to focus on work. However, the smoker’s perception is mostly an illusion (Jarvis, Wardle, 17-21).
Within ten seconds of the first inhalation, nicotine, a potent alkaloid, passes into the bloodstream, transits the barrier that protects the brain from most impurities, and begins to act on brain cells. Nicotine molecules fit like keys into the “nicotinic” receptors on the surface of the brain’s neurons. In fact, nicotine fits the same “keyholes” as one of the brain’s most important neurotransmitters (signal chemicals), acetycholine, which results in a rush of stimulation and an increase in the flow of blood to the brain (Hinton, Evans, Jacobs, 45-53).
After ten puffs have flowed through the lungs, the smoker feels energized and clearheaded, but this is partly due to the fact that this was a period which ended a nicotine depravation, and another is about to happen. Within 30 minutes, the nicotine is reduced and the smoker feels the energy slipping away. A second cigarette is lit, and there is another surge of adrenaline, but now there is a feeling of one of the paradoxes of smoking, that at one dose it can stimulate, at another soothe. The muscles throughout your body start to relax, and your pain threshold rises.
Our view is that along with the pleasures of smoking come real risks of serious diseases......
