Beware — menthol cigarettes cause teens to smoke more

A recent study stated that flavoured cigarettes like menthol cigarettes lure college students and youth to smoke more as compared to their peers who smoke non-menthol flavoured cigarettes. Sunday Azag

By: Editorial Team | | Updated: June 21, 2014 3:33 pm

A recent study stated that flavoured cigarettes like menthol cigarettes lure college students and youth to smoke more as compared to their peers who smoke non-menthol flavoured cigarettes. Sunday Azagba, a scientist at University of Waterloo in Canada, said ‘the craze of menthol cigarettes in the teens roots from the perception that these flavoured cigarettes are less harmful than the regular ones.’ He added that youth think that the mint taste of the cigarettes mask its noxious properties, but in reality these are much more dangerous than the usual unflavoured ones. (Read: 5 Ds to start you on the path to quit smoking)

The findings of the research that focused on smoking habit of youth in Canada showed that menthol smokers were almost three times more likely to report that they intend to continue smoking in the next year. Azagba noted ‘There is a growing concern that the high popularity of these menthol cigarettes among the current youth may hinder the recent progress in preventing other young people from smoking. This is because many of them may find it interesting to experiment with the menthol flavoured ciagrettes rather than the unflavoured brands,” Azagba noted. He concluded that we need new laws to ban all these added flavours in all tobacco products as a move to step forward. The study appeared in the journal Cancer Causes and Control. (Read: Quit smoking naturally — the yoga way to kick the butt)

Everyone knows that smoking is bad for health. But have you ever wondered why is it so? Well, here are top 10 reasons smoking can not only cause a host of health ailments but can actually kill you.

Reason #1: Is known to cause cancer

Smoking leads to cancer of the nose, mouth, larynx (voice box), trachea, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, cervix, bone marrow and blood. Wondering how it happens? Well, when you smoke, the entire process – right from when you light up your cigarette to when you exhale – leads to several drastic and disastrous effects in the body. To know more, you can read about the 25 things that happen within your body when you smoke.

Reason #2: Leads to formation of wrinkles and premature ageing

Yes, smoking leads to the appearance of fine lines(especially around the eyes and lips), age spots, puffy eyes, dull, dry and lifeless skin. How it happens is that the chemicals present in cigarettes cause the fine capillaries under your skin to contract and constricts the blood flow to your skin. This lack of blood and fresh oxygen causes your skin to look dull and lifeless. Here are 8 reasons why smoking is bad for you.

Here are some tips that may helps you to quit smoking

Cold Turkey – 75% people who’ve quit smoking claim to have done so without the aid of any aid or supplement. Coupled with therapy and intervention cold turkey is supposed to be the best way to quit. There are various websites and helplines which help people quit without the aid of any medicines. Most replacement therapies look to chemically substitute the nicotine hit of smoking but it just means switching from one addiction to another.

Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT) – NRT looks to take care of nicotine craving by providing a substitute source without the harmful effects of tobacco. It works on the principle that though nicotine is the ‘addictive’ part of cigarettes the more dangerous ones are tar, carbon monoxide and other gases. Read more about the different ways to quit smoking

With inputs from IANS

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Published: June 21, 2014 1:59 pm | Updated:June 21, 2014 3:33 pm

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