“I tried to quit when my parents caught me,” Chris Cosgrove said after sucking on 69 cancer-causing agents wrapped up tightly in a Camel Light. Hardly motivated enough to stay away from the habit, he started smoking again soon after quitting, totaling his duration to two years.
Standing outside in 40-degree weather during a concert, Cosgrove explained his craving while lighting another cigarette.
“I want one the most in the morning, when I drink and when I’m around live music,” he said.
As with every smoker, with every drag the freshman biological engineering major constricts his skin’s blood vessels, attacks his lungs’ natural cleansing system and suffocates red blood cells that bring oxygen to the brain and other vital organs.
Cosgrove said he feared addiction when he first started smoking.
“I smoked cloves of all things, cause I thought they were non-habitual,” he said.
Then he switched to a menthol cigarette. “I couldn’t chain smoke those ’cause they were hard on my throat,” he said.
“I’m addicted now, but it’s my only addiction,” he added.
Graduate student Amy Edwards teaches and counsels students about health issues at the Longest Student Health Center. Her research in the fatal risks of nicotine addiction has led her to oppose the habit. She has found that smoking negatively affects much more than the lungs.
Lung cancer, however, is the deadliest risk involved.
“Tobacco causes more deaths than AIDS, fires, homicide, suicide and automobile accidents,” she said. She added that one out of three smokers will die from their habit.
So why would some people still want to inhale all of those toxins and carcinogens, aware that they may die from the addiction? Edwards points to social influences, saying that members of sororities and fraternities make up a high percentage of college smokers.
Another reason is the desire to reduce stress. But the myth that nicotine relieves stress in false. “It’s the craving for nicotine that stresses people out,” she said.
Along with attacking the lungs’ natural cleansing process, the drug also depresses the immune system, decreases energy, takes oxygen from cells and constricts blood vessels in the skin. This constriction makes deep lines appear around the eyes and mouth.
If more health conscious people are turned off by the unnatural chemicals in cigarettes and they turn to natural herbs like marijuana, they are only increasing these negative risks.
“One joint of that stuff has the effect of five cigarettes,” Edwards said.
Cosgrove said he knows what he does to himself by smoking. Most of his family has or has had some form of malignant cancer.
“I’ll get it whether I smoke or not,” he said, “so I’m not going to quit anytime soon.”
But what are the options for people who want to quit?
“People who ask for help are twice as likely to stay smoke-free, than those who don’t,” Edwards said. Quitnet.com helps quitters set up their own quitting contracts and also pairs them up with other quitters.
“Quitters helping other quitters is one of the most effective strategies,” Edwards said. “Our patch and support programs are very effective. Coming by and signing up is the first step.”
The Cancer Facts and Figures of 2005 also provide insight. They say lung cancer in the United States has decreased among men and has remained steady among women.
The American Cancer Society said this is because fewer Americans are smoking. It is an improvement, considering that the number of women smokers have increased annually.
Scientists for the Journal of National Cancer Institute enlisted 150 smokers and gradually decreased their number of cigarettes smoked in one day. They found that carcinogen levels did not decrease proportionately to the decrease in number of cigarettes smoked. When smokers cut their number of cigarettes in half, their carcinogen levels only decreased by 25 percent. When they cut them by 75 percent, the levels only decreased by 38 percent.
The scientists conclude that only cessation can decrease health risks.
Edwards warned that the first couple of weeks of quitting aren’t pleasurable.
“Depression will set in the first week but will pass,” she says. “Also, an increase in appetite will last for a few months.”
Other side effects of withdrawals are irritability, restlessness and inability to concentrate. But she advised to keep trying to quit.
“Just because you give in to your cravings once, doesn’t mean you have to keep smoking,” she said.
Edwards said she warns college students that if they don’t quit now, they are likely to carry the habit following graduation for four more years.