SMOKERS’ DANGER

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 January 1925, Page 8

SMOKERS’ DANGER

MEDICAL MEN’S WARNING. The tobacco smoker is likely to take exceedingly cold comfort from an article published in the Dearborn “Independent,” and setting out the views of Professor Irving Eisher, of ' Yale University, and other•, authorities on the effects of nicotine on the body. Professor Fisher raises the question whether tobacco is wholesome like food, medicinal like quinine, noxious like opium, or harmless like chewinggum. To the question whether tobacco is wholesome he considers that the authorities among American doctors whom he has consulted offer an emphatic negative. He summarises statement after statement from these doc-t tors, and the whole effect is to show* that tobacco in excess is injurious in the extreme. Dr A. Lambert, writing in Tice’s “Practice of Medicine,” states there are a large number of persons in whom tobacco causes a precordial pain. This

pain does not go to the severity of an anginal attack, nor does it become substernal or radiate in the'usual way. Patients ( who' suger real angina, however, increase the number of their severe attacks by the use of tobacco. He cites instances of patients with this trouble who give up with benefit, and of some who later took it up again with fatal results. The most frequent effect of tobacco on the heart is to cause extra systoles—that is, skipped beats. Sir William Osler has cited the cases of three friends of his, apparently healthy men, all of whom died suddenly, and, it would seem, from the effects of tobacco on the nerves of the heart. Dr G. J. Fisher and Professor Elmer Berry, of the Young "Men’s Christian Association, found that smoking raises the heart rate and_the blood pressure, and that it markedly delays the return

of the heart rate to normal after exercise. These effects were caused by moderate smoking, and were produced in healthy and vigorous young rfien. M. A. Guy, o fParis, after extensive research, found that tobacco gives rise *■■> a .series of functional disturbances in different organs, especially the. heart. Dr Janeway, of Johns Hopkins University, stated that nicotine produces an immense augmentation of blood pressure in animals. Blood pressure, as affected by smoking, was also investigated by Dr Sheldon, of Cornell University, in a group of 58 persons of middle or advanced life, all of whom presented hardening of the arteries with high blood pressure. The on the experiments states: “Whereas the risk from any elevation in blood pressure increases greatly n the higher the initial pressure in the patient, it is undesirable for anyone having a. constant systolic pressure much above 220 millimetres to smoke, and smoking is equally undesirable by anyone having

a constant initial pressure above 160 millimetres’ wTienTne use of tobacco; is found uniformly to produce a considerable rise in blood pressure.” Dr E. L. Fisk, medical director of the Life Extension Institute, states that tobacco is likely to cause depression of the 1 circulation and disturb the nervous mechanism of the heart and circulation, rather than to produce high blood pressure. Unfavourable mouth conditions are very commonly noted among tobacco users. Dr L. P. Clark, of Manhattan State Hospital, declares that the chronic effect of tobacco on the nervous/System appears to be to induce toxic congestion of' the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, inducing finally in the latter a mild degenerative neuritis. Dr L. von FranklHochwart, of Vienna, observes that heavy smogers noU seldom complain of specks before the eyes, /with which symptom often, but not always, a sense of pressure in the head is associated. Dr F. Dowling, on examining men in a tobacco factory, found among the smokers a gradual progressive failure of vision in both eyes. An irirtation

of the mucous membrane of the. eyes is also a common affection in smon and caused directly by the smoke. Professor Roman says that the death rate from tuberculosis is higher in the tobacco industry than in any other of 500 occupations, except marble and stone cutting. Dr Hubler’s observations at Columbia University led him to the conviction that unquestionably tobacco predisposes to pulmonary, tuberculosis, and that when diseases of respiration have developed, the tobacco habit certainly aggravates them. The histories of 100 cases of mouth cancer were studied by Dr R. Abbe, of New York, who found that there were ten women and 90 men, and that almost every man had been an inveterate

smoker. In one of the worst cases of cancer of the tongue of a woman, inquiries showed that the cancer began from a bad tooth which had been extracted, but that she had used snuff on that side of the tongue. In thirteen

cases that showed cancer of the cheek it had been the habit of the patient to hold a quid of tobacco at the spot diseased. Nose, throat and ear affections were promoted by smoking, according to the claims of a number of doctors. Acid dyspepsia is common in habitual smokers. In certain cases there is a destruction of the capacity to feel hunger. The truth is, Professor Fisher observes that tobacco lowers the whole

tone of the body and decreases its vital power and resistance. This is shown by the fact that in surgical emergencies patients accustomed to smoking have been observed to suffer a great handicap in their chances for recovery. This is doubtless because the poisons of tobacco tax the vital resistance and require the expenditure of powers by the liver, kidneys and other organs to neutralise and eliminate the poisons. That working efficiency is lowered by cigarette smoking in the

young is attested by the fact that in Chicago there is a large organisation of business men pledged not.to employ any cigarette-smoking boys. Business men in many other parts of America are following their example. The drug effects of tobacco apparently lead to a craving for other drugs, including alcohol. Dr A. Lambert, an authority on this question, writes that many heavy drinkers who are endeavouring hopelessly to give up their habits are

realy cases of chronic tobacco poisoning. This is seen, he says, more frequently among the incessant cigarette smokers than among those who usually smoke pipes or cigars, and most frequently among those who inhale their tobacco smoke. A recent study by Dr A. H. Burr on the relation of longevity to sex is reported by him as indicating that the tobacco habit is one of the very significant reasons why fewer men than women attain old age. Summing up, Professor Fisher’says that ft we see that tobacco is injurious to the human body. It injures the heart; it disturbs the blood pressure; it poisons the nerves; it hurts the eyes; it lessens resistance to tuberculosis and other diseases: its use sometimes induces cancer; it often leads to the use of alcohol; it reduces muscular power and accuracy; it impairs working efficiency, earning power, and athletic power; it stunts the growth of the young: it probably shortens life- it probably reduces fertility, and it probably reduces appreciably the vigour of the offspring of the heavy smoker. In short, to-

bacco acts as a narcotic poison, like opium and like alcohol, though usually in a less degree. No question seems to exist as to the harmful effects of the excessive use of tobacco. Habituni smokers will generally admit;this fact. As to the moderate use, it cannot truthfully be said that such use will do more than moderate damage. From every indication it behoves the man who wishes to keep physically fit to omit tobacco from his daily schedule.