POISONOUS EFFECTS OF TOBACCOSMOKING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 39

POISONOUS EFFECTS OF TOBACCOSMOKING.

The Lancet has something to say of the injurious effects of inhaling tobacco smoke in a railway carriage which 's» inadequately ventilated: — "The poisonous effects cf tobacco-3moking are (it says) mest marked when the smoke is inhaled or when it is

brought into intimate contact with the lung cells and conveyed directly into the blood. The cigarette smoker who ' swallows the emoke,' as it is often said, deliberately exposes himself ta the risk of unmistakably poisonous symptoms, as are manifested in palpitation of the heart, dyspeptio disturbances, impairment of vision, headache, breathlessness, malaise, and so on, and precisely the same risk is run by those who remain long in a carriage which

is practically always full of smoke for the want of efficient means of ventilation." Indeed, the Lancet asserts, tho risk in the latter case is greater, " because not only is the emoke drawn from the tobacco inhaled, but that escaping from the bowl of tho pipe or from the lighted end of the cigarette or cigar is inhaled also. It is well known," our medical contemporary goes en , to say, " that the smoke of smouldering to- ' bacco has very powerful physiological

effects. Amongst the highly toxic products occurring freely in tobacco-smoke is carbon monoxide, which has disastrous effects upon the oxygen-carrying power of the blood. Smokers in the railway carriage should guard themselves against the evils of inhaling smoke by agreeing to give the emoke an outlet by opening or partly opening the window — that ie to say, if the ventilating arrangements provided prove to be useless, si 9 is nearly always the case. The emoker

who is jealous of his health enjoys smoking without having recourse- to inhaling the smoke, and ho should see that his care to avoid the dangerous process of directly inhaling tobacco smoke is not defeated by smoking in a smoke-contaminated atmosphere which practically never changed." For the same reason, it is pointed out, the smoking-conoert is an institution not free from danger, and is a very frequent source of disturbance to health.