Smoking And Health - A Report To Youth (1969)

wondered about smoking like everyone else you must have heard a lot about it seen the pretty girls in the commercial [Music] want to be young again want to be in [Music] love change to spray the new cigarette for Young Americans perhaps you've also read the warning on cigarette packs now required by the United States government on all commercially produced these days about about cigarettes and their effects on health hair and but so are others the United States Surgeon General for instance issued a report that caused much National Alarm it caused people of all ages to think seriously about their habit of smoking and about their health young people people in high schools have most to lose because they have most of the health but obviously nobody Falls over Dead when he smokes a cigarette you know lots of people who smoke you yourself may even smoke some people who don't smoke have gotten lung cancer although this is not common it does add to the confusion well what are the facts just what do we know about smoking and its hazards to help what effect does smoking have on the body air first nose into the trachea here it into two bronchial tubes just beneath the lungs that serves as a sort of pump or Bellows the air is pumped into the lungs by the downward movement of the muscles it works automatically we never have to think about it inside on the walls of the trachea are the CIA they are microscopic in size but if we enlarged them thousands of times we would see that they look very much like wheat waving in a field their purpose is to clean the air sweeping dust pollen and bacteria back into the throat so they can eventually be brought to the mouth this is what happens when a person clears his throat this cleaning process is aided by a very thin layer of mucus which is constantly carried forward by the ca here you can see the foreign particles falling onto the mucus and being swept forward much like they Breeze swept by ocean waves towards the Beach deep inside each of the lungs is where air gets into the blood the lung is not Hollow as many people think but contains small pouches called alveoli the wall of each alvus serves as a special membrane through which oxygen enters the blood and carbon dioxide leaves it the total outside dimension of the lung is not the important factor it is the vast membrane area of all the walls of all the Alvi that gives us the necessary space to properly exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide scientists have calculated that if alvioli and a healthy lung were broken apart and placed side by side they would cover an area equal to the size of this regulation tennis court if a group of Alvi in the lungs were removed or destroyed the amount of membrane area available to the lung would be immediately reduced you have seen how each part of the respiratory system does its own individual job but let's go back to our original question is smoking actually harmful smoke like a number of other things is an irritant all irritants that enter our breathing system are harmful but smoking is by far the most harmful it not only tends to put the greatest number of foreign particles in our lungs at any one time but these smoke particles are also smaller and it is more difficult to prevent them from reaching the lungs if you would like to prove this to yourself in a simple experiment try this light a cigarette and place a thickness of tissue paper over the other end the dark spot you see was caused by millions of tiny particles contained in the Smoke there is no way to keep these irritating particles from getting to the lungs even with a filter what do these irritants do to our breathing since the trachea and the broni are the first parts of the system that receive the irritant or smoke they are the first parts that are damaged remember the CIA fibers and their job of keeping the trachea clean as these excessive gases and particles increased the action of the CIA Fiers slows down over a period of time they gradually wither and die meanwhile the bronchial tubes are receiving those foreign particles that theila couldn't stop they in turn become inflamed representing an early stage of chronic bronchitis or as it is sometimes more popularly called smoker's cough although it takes years for the lungs to become permanently damaged this is definitely the beginning also nicotine and and other impurities are now entering the bloodstream by way of the lungs and these like all other poisons will cause harm to the body what effect does all of this actually have on a person's life the first effects the smoker notices are relatively minor nothing more than a slight cough or raw throat he will also probably experience heavy coughing upon Awakening in the morning this is his body's effort to remove the mucus built up overnight in the trachea and bronchi a job usually done automatically by the San but now impossible due to their damage from smoking later if he continues to smoke he may notice an actual decrease in physical stamina this doesn't mean that he can't join an Athletics you probably know many smokers who do but most athletes agree that smoking does impair endurance and the ability to excel in top competition an outstanding swimmer will still be good but he can lose the expert breath control needed to shave off those extra winning seconds he may let the team down although this effect first becomes evident with athletes it is not limited to them others notice it too especially as their smoking increases these are early symptoms in the lives of most smokers only the beginning bronchitis is beginning to set in chronic bronchitis is much more common and dangerous than is generally known as people continue to smoke the constant irritation causes permanent damage to body tissues particularly the lungs if we could see them they would appear to be literally sprinkled with tobacco stains much the same as the dark spot in the tissue made by the cigarette in our earlier experiment the even more crippling condition called empa is the result of the breakdown in the Alvi when this happens there are fewer walls left for this exchange remember our tennis court breathing capacity has now been cut as more and more of the lung is destroyed the smoker gets short of breath even with smaller amounts of exertion now normal daily activities can become major problems the person is forced to seek medical advice if he seeks it soon enough and follows it carefully his condition can sometimes be stopped from growing worse but unfortunately not completely healed much of the harm already done to the body is now permanent and he must learn to live with it if he fails to quit smoking and to follow medical advice he will push this condition until he can no longer remain on his feet the almost inevitable result is death as a physician with the Public Health Service I work with patients with bronchitis and empyema in advanced stages of the diseases we see them in intensive care units they need mechanical AIDS and oxygen to to even survive one usually thinks of bronchitis and empys in relation to old people and to a great extent this is true however we're seeing younger people with bronchitis and empyema so severe that they do require hospitalization I've seen hundreds of these patients and I don't really have to ask whether they've been heavy smokers or not the answer is always the same they have been this man has lung cancer is it because he was a heavy smoker probably statistics indicate an extremely high causal relationship between lung cancer and smoking what is the answer science has demonstrated a definite relationship between smoking and lung disease the evidence is overwhelming no doubt some of you who smoke don't intend to stop will you get lung disease chances are that you will are you willing to take that chance [Music] slow down you move too fast you got to make the morning just kicking down the cob looking for fun and feeling [Music] hello L what you know I come to watch your flowers grin you got rhy [Music]