When applying for life insurance, and in some cases health insurance, certain lifestyle habits may end up costing you more each months in premiums. One of these habits is smoking or other nicotine use. Employers who provide health insurance as...
Smokers and nonsmokers often wonder what the body does with nicotine---the addictive compound in tobacco---once the chemical enters the bloodstream. The liver is the body's primary detoxification organ, and is responsible for converting harmful...
A blood test can be used to check for nicotine. The reasons for this can vary, but nicotine is an indication that a person smokes, which can have a large impact on a person's health. This information can be of interest to insurance agencies and...
For many people, cigarettes are the delivery method of choice for a very addictive drug. Cigarettes enable you get a dose of nicotine into your body quickly and maintain adequate blood levels as a result of its unique pharmacokinetic profile....
School programs and national public service announcements have made clear that smoking cigarettes is a major health hazard. You may not realize, however, that just being in the presence of someone who is smoking can seriously affect your health,...
According to the Surgeon General's 2006 report on "The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke", second-hand smoke actually has a higher concentration of certain toxic and cancer causing components than the smoke inhaled by...
Exposure to secondhand smoke, or SHS, is dangerous to the developing body of a child. In 2006, the United States Surgeon General released a report stating that no amount of SHS exposure is safe for children. Secondhand smoke consists of the smoke...
The American Cancer Society says most smokers begin as teens due to peer pressure or curiosity. Unfortunately, the younger a person starts, the more likely he is to become addicted. Because the chemicals and poisons found in cigarettes can be...
Most people realize that smoking is dangerous to the health of the smoker. Recently, more and more people have become aware that smoking also damages people who breathe the secondhand smoke produced by smokers. When you smoke in public, you put...
Sperm motility is one of the factors necessary for male fertility. Motility refers to the movement of sperm in a forward motion from vagina to the fallopian tube, where the egg is fertilized. In addition to smoking being a general health risk,...
Nicotine is a psychoactive alkaloid, meaning it's a nitrogen-containing chemical compound that activates parts of the brain. There are several chemical reactions that take place in the body because of nicotine---some of them are due to the...
Nicotine, whether encountered through cigarette smoke, chewing tobacco or other "smokeless" tobacco products, can have adverse effects on the developing fetus when used by a pregnant woman. As with many drugs and medications, the effect on the...
Babies and young children are extremely vulnerable to health problems caused by breathing chemicals in cigarette smoke. Whether children endanger others through tobacco use themselves or contact smoke particles third hand from parents or people in...
According to Galaxy Goo, a website dedicated to advancing science knowledge, nicotine is the main ingredient in the leaves of the tobacco plant. Lobeline is another plant alkaloid that acts like and is similar to nicotine. Lobeline is extracted...
There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke for anyone. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of secondhand smoke because they breathe faster than adults and their bodies are still developing. The American Cancer Society...
When you light a cigarette, cigar or pipe, you release tobacco smoke into the air. Since tobacco smoke contains many toxins, you are poisoning the air or anyone close enough to you to breathe it. People who breathe tobacco smoke produced by others...
Whether or not expecting mothers are active tobacco users, secondhand smoke can affect their fetuses in many ways. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that nonsmoking women can inhale airborne smoke passively, or secondhand....
Nicotine is only one of the thousands of toxic chemicals in a cigarette, yet it has a profound effect on the body. It is a drug that is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, according to the American Cancer Society. It affects nearly every system in...
People have known about the direct dangers of smoking since at least the 1960s. Only recently, however, has research confirmed that when you smoke in public, you put the health of others at risk. The dangers of secondhand smoking has been used to...
About 4,500 infants die in the United.States each year from unknown causes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that half of those deaths are the result of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, characterized by a sudden and...
Tobacco has probably killed more people than any other herb, and is currently responsible for more than 3 million deaths each year, according to Anne Charlton, emeritus professor of cancer health education at the University of Manchester. During...
Pipe smoking is a form of tobacco smoking that has its roots in North American culture, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. Mexican priests smoked pipes in religious ceremonies while Native Americans smoked pipes to represent peace. While the...
Smoking directly affects the health of adult users, leading to significantly increased risks for the development of ailments such as emphysema, heart disease and several forms of cancer. Through secondhand exposure, children of smokers also...
The U.S. Surgeon General indicates that there is no safe level of cigarette smoke exposure. In addition, as children's bodies and organs are still developing, they're more vulnerable to the hazards of cigarette smoke. The Centers for Disease...
