People think that just one cigarette won't harm them. However, once an individual takes his or her first puff, it is hard to stop; it can be very addicting due to the nicotine and tobacco. Nicotine is a very addicting drug that generates various perilous withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to quit. Each inhalation of smoke slowly destroys "vital protection mechanisms" in a smoker's lungs, and brings him or her one step closer to getting cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, or even death (Diehl 49). The Tobacco companies put warning labels on the cigarette boxes, which forewarn the smoker of serious side effects, and yet most smokers fail to read the fine lines on the label. People can smoke for years and may not see any outward signs of bad health, but that does not mean they could not contract lung cancer, emphysema, or some other types of lung diseases. Smoking does directly affect the body instantly. The effects of smoking can be felt on the brain in as little as seven to eight seconds after the first inhalation of cigarette smoke (Kalamazoo). At the early age people are starting to smoke now, they are going to be sick sooner than those people who start smoking later in life. .
Some of the "immediate effects of nicotine are an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and hormone production, constriction of small blood vessels under the skin, changes in blood composition, and change in metabolism" (Surgery Door). Smoking has an extremely negative effect on a person's health. Cigarettes are full of tobacco, and tobacco smoke "contains over 4,000 different chemicals, many of which are harmful such as benzene, hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde, lacetone, ammonia, arsenic," and many more (Surgery Door).
Cigarette smoke also causes .
"Irritation and damage to your throat, cilia, lungs, heart and circulatory system digestive system, the nervous system, and many other parts of the body. There are many types of cancer that smoking causes such as to the oral cavity, to the throat, larynx, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, and even to the urinary bladder" (Kalamazoo).