preview

The Cost Of Smoking Cigarettes

Decent Essays

British smokers are costing the (National Health Service) NHS £5 billion per year, £1.4 billion in sick leave as well as 60,000 innocent non-smokers’ lives. However, in 2013 around £1.2 billion was accrued through taxation of total tobacco revenue in the UK. In less economically developed countries like Malawi in South-East of Africa, tobacco sales are pivotal in generating more than half of the money they earned from exports, $165 million. So, would we be doing more harm than good by banning the smoking of cigarettes?
When investigating the true cost of smoking cigarettes there is an overwhelming amount of research into the multiple effects smoking has on health. The smoke inhaled when smoking a cigarette contains 4,000 compounds which often leave toxic traces in the lungs and other organs. This is one of the biggest contributing factors as to why smokers visit the GP and hospital more often, have lower survival rate after surgery and take longer to heal wounds compared with non-smokers. The inhalation of the smoke is also known to cause around 60 carcinogens, which can harm every organ in the body, especially the heart. Cardiovascular diseases like atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease make up 10% of all heart related diseases caused by smoking. The tobacco smoke inhaled can seriously damage blood vessels increasing your chance of developing atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is caused by a thick substance called plaque which accumulates in the coronary arteries. As

Get Access