Tobacco Consumption And The Effects 1

TOBACCO CONSUMPTION AND THE EFFECTS

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Introduction

Tobacco is a plant that is grown necessary for its leaves, known to have nicotine constituents

which when absorbed in the blood steam acts as a stimulant. Tobacco leaves are dried and

fermented to produce tobacco products. Tobacco is believed to have originated from North and

South America continents which were used for religious and commercial purposes. Initially, it

was often offered to Mayans gods as incense sacrifice. Additionally, tobacco was used in public

ceremonies and drawn on carvings among most American communities. Medically Americans

used tobacco leaves to heal gum infections and toothache. Leaves were also crushed to produce

poultices that were used to treat swollen throat and steamed to reduce rheumatism. Among the

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, tobacco smoking was for leisure

activities and stress reliever. Tobacco is also used to reinforce relationships among the

communities. Smoking is used to show the sense of belonging and social cohesion and regarded

as asocial culture in the Strait Islander people. In this article, we are going to discuss risk factors

associated with tobacco consumption and effects on the consumer among the Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander people.

According to the research, 20% of the people in the world are smokers contributing to 8

billion people who die of smoking each year. It is said that 80% of people who die of tobacco

consumption are from middle-income countries (Kuehn, 2014, p.1487). Tobacco obsession is

brought by nicotine, a chemical in tobacco by producing a temporally pleasing physical mood

effect in the brain. Nicotine accelerates adrenaline function when absorbed in the bloodstream.
 Tobacco Consumption And The Effects 3

Relatively nicotine triggers an increase of dopamine which is associated with pleasure and

reward system in mind. The chemical gives a sense of reward to oneself and motivates the

tobacco user to keep on using the drug (Klein et al., 2018 p 31).

Within Australia region, there is a high rate of tobacco usage, especially within Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Islander people even though the rate varies depending on the community.

Tobacco usage is the most cause of death among the islander people. According to (Lawrence,

2011 p.13) the tobacco prevalence rate among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is

42% where most of the drug consumers are young people between 0-15 years. However, the rate

is decreasing since there are strategies in the Australian government to reduce drug usage. The

drug usage has brought adverse effects within Islander community seeing that is a risk factor

which is related to more than 20 chronicle infections, and known to have claimed over 90 million

lives in the world in the 19-20 century (Bernat et al., 2017 p.38). Study shows there is high

tobacco dependence in males compared to females, especially in the young generation.

All forms of tobacco usage either by chewing or smoking leads to cardiovascular infections

due to smoke particles blocking the airways of the blood vessels. Cigarettes smoking stimulate

atherogenesis leading to endothelial dysfunction. Long term endothelial dysfunction causes

atherosclerotic cardiovascular disorder (Park and Park, 2015 p 1213) increasing morbidity and

mortality rate among the islander communities. Tobacco usage affects most of the organs in the

body, especially the eyes. Tobacco consumption may lead to eye problems among the aged

people, since smoking is linked to nuclear cataract, for the users with ARED. Tobacco contains

neurotoxic chemicals which induce color vision loss.

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Furthermore, the continuous usage of cigarettes causes lens yellowing and inflammation.

Smoking also damages blood vessels and neurons connecting to the retina, pointing the way to

visual impairment (Li et al., 2010 p. 845). For this reason, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

people may suffer from visual disorders considering the tobacco is not controlled.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families have a higher risk of diabetes type two

infections being that smoking increases insulin resistance in the body negatively affecting

glucose control. Nicotine from tobacco raises the hormone that fights insulin, and the presence of

neuronal nicotine receptors in the nicotine affects the development of pancreatic cells (Chang,

2012 p.399). Nicotine exposure may result in B-cells dysfunction making B-cells apoptosis,

causing impaired glucose metabolism. Tobacco usage destroys apart pancreas; by this virtue,

diabetes can be caused by insulin resistance or reduced insulin secretion (Śliwińska-Mossoń and

Milnerowicz, 2017 p 265). The risk can be reduced by tobacco consumption control.

Strait Islander community also at risk of colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is also known

as colon cancer is a rectum or colon infection. Smoking tobacco raises the risk of colorectal

adenomatous polyps which severely grow into cancer in the rectum or colon (Hannan, Jacobs

and Thun, 2009 p.3362). The infected may experience a feeling of cancerous tumors in the colon

or other parts of the digestive system. When one burns tobacco, it releases carcinogenic

compounds such as heterocyclic aromatic amine which causes colorectal mucosa damage either

through bloodstream absorption or saliva. These carcinogens accelerate the cancer rate in our

consumer bodies (Luchtenborg et al., 2007, p.1342). If Strait Islander communities reduce

tobacco consumption, there may be fewer risks of cancer infections.

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Research shows that women who are tobacco dependents have a high risk of ectopic

pregnancy. This is because continuous exposure of the oviduct to the smoke alters epithelial cell

turn over in the oviduct changing the cell structure (Horne et al., 2014 p.89400) The smoke in the

cigarettes reduces the production of a BAD gene in the oviduct which is responsible for giving a

contusive environment for embryo development in the uterus. The faulty BAD gene causes the

employ to implant itself outside the uterus leading to miscarriage. Besides, cotinine chemical in

the tobacco initiates increase of PROKR1 in the oviduct, therefore, increasing the susceptibility

of the embryo planting itself within the fallopian tube (Handler et al., 1989 p1239). Tobacco is

also related to Rheumatoid Arthritis risks. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic infection which

attacks one's joints. It is also known as the autoimmune disorder, which usually occurs when the

body immune system attacks its body tissues. It may often affect the skin, lungs, heart, and blood

vessels. The immune system attacks synovial fluid typically by thickening it mainly by oxidation

which later destroys the cartilage of the joints. Smoke increases the oxidative stress in the body.

Consequently, oxidative stress increases rheumatoid inflammation since the free radicles in the

smoke antioxidant, which is responsible for etiology for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Continuous

exposure to smoke also increases the chances of rheumatoid infections (Hutchinson, 2001, p.

224). Inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis may damage other parts of the body

which may eventually cause disabilities.

Although tobacco was used to relieve stress and as a means of socialization among the

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families it has led to increasing of death rates among the

communities (Conway, Tsourtos and Lawn, 2017 p.17). This is because the community faces a

crisis of poor medical care and hardship in accessing health facilities. Where these health centers

exist, there is no long term relationship among the care providers due to high staff turnover.
 Tobacco Consumption And The Effects 6

Moreover, death rates have been contributed by racist and discrimination by health care

providers and unaffordable cost of the services. Seeing that tobacco brings a sense of relaxation

and idleness among the Strait Islander Communities, it has sharply increased the poverty rate

among the individuals. Infections from cardiovascular disorders make one to spend a lot on

treatment. This may cause poverty, particularly in marginalized and low-income families.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families may experience a high rate of poverty due to

cardiovascular treatments as it is very expensive to get the treatment. On the grounds that most

of the individuals are unemployed, and they live hand to mouth life, tobacco causing disorders

accelerates the rate of poverty. The people living in urban areas among the Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander families are likely to get employment compared to those living in rural areas

(Australian Burial of Statistics 2016). The low rate of employment shows that they are unable to

meet health care facilities.

Tobacco smoke has detrimental effects on the environment on earth resources. The

environmental effects are felt in terms of deforestation, climate change, and air pollution.

Tobacco growing also requires a lot of chemicals for pest control, such as herbicides,

insecticides, fungicides, and fumigants. The use of the chemicals exposes the user to a variety of

diseases like asthma, autism, diabetes and reproduction dysfunction (Kulik et al., 2017 p.362)

Conclusion

In consideration of various risk factors and adverse health and social impact on the

consumers, the consumption of tobacco should be highly prevented in all nations. Proper health

counseling should be done to the youths seeing that the largest number of tobacco consumers are

the youths aging 14 years. Special programs and strategies should be enhanced to prevent
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children from being initiated to smoking. The supply of tobacco to children under eighteen years

should be prohibited. Children should not be employed in tobacco farms, processing, or

manufacturing firms. Educating the potential smokers can be done at schools, health centers, and

in the media. Alternatively, policies should be put in place to regulate tobacco consumption.

Such systems may include; high taxation of tobacco products, making the products to be more

expensive therefore reducing the number of tobacco consumers. In the same manner, the policies

should regulate tobacco advertising and usage in public places.

For drug addicts that depend on tobacco, they should seek alternatives for their body triggers

apart from smoking. They should engage themselves in more vigorous physical activities that

may help shun from tobacco craving; thence reducing tobacco intensity. The Australian

government should set strategies to reduce tobacco consumption by Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander families through building rehabilitation centers that will enable the drug addicts to quit

its usage. The Australian government should build more health centers that will help the affected

people with cardiovascular infections and other tobacco-related disorders to get better health

facilities. People that practice tobacco farming as their main economic activity should be

discouraged and get alternatives to their resource. They grow other commercial crops that will

not produce hazard effects on the environment.

For the Australian government to control tobacco prevalence among Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander communities, it should burn all the tobacco advertisements and give health

warning to it users which will give a confronting message to it users and encourage the users to

quit smoking. The government should also put pressure and high penalties for the tobacco

manufacturers in order to prevent the illicit trade of tobacco products and reduce the availability

of tobacco in the market. Since smoking is harmful to the environment, employers are advised to
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provide smoking zones to smokers to prevent air pollution and dwindle smoke exposure to the

environment. The smoking area should not be enclosed by a roof and walls to provide a room for

air circulation.

Bibliography

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 Tobacco Consumption And The Effects 9

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