UNAM
Revista Digital Universitaria
Revista Digital Universitaria ISSN: 1607 - 6079 | Publicación mensual | 1 de agosto de 2015 vol.16, No.8

ABSTRACT

The smoke of tobacco and their adverse effects



Jorge Antonio García Álvarez


The Nicotiana tabacum, or tobacco plant, has been used as an element of pleasure from a long time ago. It has been used forming cigarettes, by the combustion of the plant and the inhalation of the smoke, which gives origin to the tobacco dependence when being aspired in a recurrent way. The combustion temperature is very high, which is why the cigarette smoke generates secondary components different from those that originally contains the tobacco. The result of that combustion is the generation of approximately 5000 different chemical compounds and it is probably the most toxic and harmful mixture to which a human being can be exposed. Once the smoke penetrates through the oral cavity, the organism generates a series of answers to avoid serious damages. The most studied addictive component in the cigarette is the nicotine. It affects mainly the central nervous system, stimulating the activation of some receptor molecules that are in neuronal cells (nicotinic acetylcholine receptors), producing the liberation of a messenger chemical called dopamine. At the moment, the tobacco dependence is a problem of health that increases day by day, far from diminishing, and the way to face the problem is based fundamentally on warnings. The objective of this paper is to give a simple vision on what happens since a person lights a cigarette, how the addiction is created and what consequences it has.



Keywords: tobacco, tobacco dependence, cigarette, nicotine, tobacco smoke.