Saturday, November 19, 2016

The Effects of Smoking 20 Cigarettes Daily for 1 Year


Smoking takes the lives of roughly 6 million people each year, and it is estimated that there will be 1 billion tobacco-related deaths in this century alone. Smoking causes DNA in your body to have mutations, which produces irreparable damage in many organs. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and King’s College London did research on the genetic mechanisms behind the 17 types of cancer caused by smoking. In order to compare the amount of smoking- related DNA damage, they took a look at the DNA of 5,000 tumors from nonsmokers and smokers to identify any genetic differences. After counting the number of mutations in each tumor, they were able to measure the rate of mutations caused by each cigarette smoked.  

The study found that those who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, develop 150 more mutations in their lungs each year, compared to those who do not smoke. Similarly, the results show the increase in the risk for developing lung cancer in smokers. In addition, it shows the effects of smoking one pack of cigarettes per day on different organs. The researchers found that it led to 97 mutations in each cell in the larynx, 39 in the pharynx, 23 in the mouth, 18 in the bladder and 6 in the liver. They concluded that smoking accelerated the speed of the cellular clock that prematurely mutates DNA. David Phillips, a professor from King’s College London states, “Mutations caused by direct DNA damage from carcinogens in tobacco were seen mainly in organs that come into direct contact with inhaled smoke. In contrast, other cells of the body suffered only indirect damage”. Professor Mike Stratton concludes that this study will help further find more information on cancers caused by things other than smoking. 

I think it is very important to understand how smoking causes mutations in different parts of the body. It is very interesting how direct and indirect amounts of damages differ in the amounts mutations caused. Essentially, it will lead to further explanations in how to prevent such mutations caused by other cancers


4 comments:

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  2. Research on the effects of smoking are important to defer people from actually smoking. A great website for learning the truth behind cigarettes and big tobacco companies is https://www.thetruth.com. I have volunteered in the past for TRUTH events that educate the public on just how bad cigarettes/tobacco products/vaping is for the body. The rate of mutations being so much more of that than non-smokers is even worse than I was expecting this to be. I do not understand how people can still smoke after reading something like this on what they are doing to their body. I think this was an awesome article to share with the class to educate people on the dangers of smoking!

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  3. For years and years we have also been told how bad cigarettes are for you and it something that you just eventually accept. After reading this summary it explained to me the true affects of the carcinogens in the cigarettes. I mean of course everyone knows that smoking cigarettes leads to cancer but to be able to see the actual breakdown of the mutations in the parts of the body is eye-opening to say the least. As someone studying biology, this really puts things in perspective on how cigarettes do what everyone says they do.

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  4. I like this article in that it allows to reader to learn more about the harms from smoking to not only the lungs but to other vital organs. I now understanding that the carcinogens in tobacco causes cancer through mutations throughout the body. There is no doubt that smoking is deadly. Sadly, even with this information and statistics, it is not enough to "convince" smokers to quit.

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