Noadswood Science, 2011

Recreational Drugs

Recreational Drugs To know the health risks involved with smoking and drinking

alcohol

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Smokers & Non-smokers Summarise the data in the table below into a couple of key

sentences…

Number of Deaths per 100’000 men per Year

Non-smokerSmoker

(cigarettes)

Lung cancer 14 209

Upper respiratory system cancers

(e.g. throat cancer)1 24

Bladder cancer 13 30

Pancreatic cancer 16 35

Heart disease 392 582

Aortic aneurysm(weakening of the aortic

wall)15 62

Obstructive lung disease 10 127

Stroke 152 203

Pneumonia 71 138

Smoking About 114,000 people die every year as a result of

smoking-related illnesses

All cigarettes sold now carry a prominent health warning – cigarettes contain about 4,000 different chemicals, many of which are harmful to the body

Harmful chemicals: -NicotineCarbon monoxideCarcinogens

Second hand smoke is just as dangerous!

Smoking & Pregnancy Tobacco contains carbon monoxide – a poisonous gas that reduces

the amount of oxygen that red blood cells carry around the body

It is especially dangerous for pregnant women to smoke, as this carbon monoxide can deprive the developing foetus of oxygen, leading to serious problems

Smoking in pregnancy has a variety of problems, including increasing the chance of: miscarriage; bleeding during pregnancy, detachment of the placenta, premature birth, ectopic pregnancy, low birth weight, congenital defects in the baby (e.g. cleft palate), stillbirth or death within the first week of life, and poorer long-term growth, development, and health of the child

Smoking

Smoking Carbon monoxide – a poisonous gas that reduces the amount of

oxygen that red blood cells carry around the body (binding to the haemoglobin)

Carcinogens – causes cancer, including tar: a brown, sticky substance that consists of tiny particles forming when tobacco smoke condenses, and is deposited in the lungs, coating the surface of the alveoli

Nicotine – an addictive drug that affects the central nervous system, increasing the heart rate and narrowing the blood vessels, causing high blood pressure

Normal lung (left) verses smokers lung (right)

Quit Smoking There are generally two methods of stopping smoking: -

“Cold turkey” – stopping completely with no helpNicotine Replacement Therapy – e.g. patches, gum

etc...

What are the advantages / disadvantages

Alcohol What is alcohol?

Alcohol is a recreational drug that has short term and long term effects on the body

Alcohol is a depressant that works by slowing down the nervous system and relaxing the brain – it can reach the brain in <1 minute

The liver breaks down alcohol to remove this toxic drug from the body – too much alcohol can damage the liver and brain

Alcohol – Behavioural Affects Alcohol can result in some serious behavioural changes

in people - it’s a depressant (slows the nerve impulses) which can make people feel relaxed and happy, but also severely slows their reaction times

But it is different for different people - some people can become aggressive, confused and loud!

This is because the alcohol affects the brain and stops the nerves from working

Excess alcohol will cause vomiting (your bodies defense in trying to remove the poisonous alcohol), however too much can lead to death as it stops signals from the brain informing the lungs to breathe

Alcohol – Anatomical Affects Alcohol also has some nasty affects on the body

These include brain damage - from brain cells being destroyed

The liver is also extremely vulnerable - the liver breaks the toxic alcohol down, but too much of it slowly kills of the liver cells leading to cirrhosis and possibly cancer

Alcohol also stops some vitamins being absorbed into the body - heavy drinkers will suffer vitamin deficiencies

And if you’re pregnant, all the poisonous alcohol in your blood will pass to the foetus - severely affecting its development

How Much?! How much alcohol is safe?!

Alcohol is an addictive drug, which can have serious consequences – killing nearly as many people as smoking!

It is recommended that men should drink no more than 21 units a week (10 pints of lager)

Women should drink no more than14 units (7 alcopops)

Quantity Complete the alcohol concentration worksheet

Quantity

Around what time did Nick stop drinking – between 12pm and 1am

By how much did his blood alcohol concentration fall each hour after he stopped drinking – 15mg/100cm3

The legal limit for driving in the UK is 80mg/100cm3 blood – at what time could Nick have legally driven to work – after 10am

True Or False

Smoking Facts About 106’000 people in the UK die each year due to smoking

– smoking related deaths are mainly due to cancers, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and heart disease

About half of all smokers die from smoking-related diseases – if you are a long-term smoker, on average your life expectancy is about 8-12 years less than a non-smoker (8 in 10 non-smokers live past the age of 70, but only about half of long-term smokers live past 70)

The younger you are when you start smoking, the more likely you are to smoke for longer and to die early from smoking

Many smoking-related deaths are not 'quick deaths’ – if you develop COPD you can expect several years of illness and distressing symptoms before you die

Smoking Facts Smoking increases the risk of developing a number of other

diseases – many of these may not be fatal, but they can cause years of unpleasant symptoms

About 30,000 people in the UK die from lung cancer each year – more than 8 in 10 cases are directly related to smoking

About 25,000 people in the UK die each year from this serious lung disease – more than 8 in 10 of these deaths are directly linked to smoking (people who die of COPD are usually quite unwell for several years before they die)

Heart disease is the biggest killer illness in the UK – about 120,000 people in the UK die each year from heart disease (~1 in 7 of these deaths are due to smoking)

Smoking Facts Other cancers (mouth, nose, throat, larynx, gullet

(oesophagus), pancreas, bladder, cervix, blood (leukaemia), and kidney) are all more common in smokers

Smokers are more likely than non-smokers to become impotent or have difficulty in maintaining an erection in middle life – this is thought to be due to smoking-related damage of the the blood vessels to the penis

Smokers tend to develop more 'lines' on their face at an earlier age than non-smokers, often making smokers look older than they really are

Alcohol Facts 1 in 25 adults are dependent on alcohol – there were 3,565 deaths

from alcohol specific diseases (alcoholic psychosis, chronic liver disease and liver cirrhosis) in 1997, a 38% increase from 1992

It is estimated that 15% of acute hospital admissions are misusing alcohol

Among male prisoners, 58% of remand and 63% of sentenced prisoners were drinking hazardously in the year before coming to prison

In 1996, the UK spent £28’000 million on alcohol generating in excess of £10’000 million revenue for the government

The number of deaths where alcohol is a significant contributory cause, rather than sole cause, has been estimated to be 25’000 to 40’000 per year

Alcohol Facts Alcohol is a factor in an estimated 20 – 30% of all accidents

Alcohol is second only to tobacco among substances that cause premature death