Why is smoking considered as one of the biggest causes of
death? And how can such dangerous habit be prevented? According to Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, smoking causes more than 5 million deaths per
year worldwide, and studies show that the number of deaths caused by smoking
will increase more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030. Why do people
smoking then? There are many reasons why people smoke in spite of their
knowledge of the risk they are putting their lives into, such as depression,
bad income, bad relationships, homelessness, and personal problems. These
issues can lead people to smoke along with practicing other bad habits in order
to feel relaxed and to ease the pressure they have in their lives. Some smokers
claim that smoking gives them energy to go through tough times and make them
concentrate more on doing things. For young people, the desire to try and
experience is what makes them start smoking. They watch others smoke and get
tempted to try it, especially if members of the family smoke as well. They also
think that this kind of behavior will make them feel mature. Almost no smoker
started smoking as an adult. Teenagers and youngsters under the age of 18 are
mostly attracted by this dreadful habit. According to the Ministry of Health in
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) 40 percent of teenagers under the age of 14 in
the UAE are smokers (Snus News & Other Tobacco Products, 2011). Many
teenagers begin smoking without bearing in mind that they may get attached to
it, and by the time they reach adulthood they become addicts. Smoking is an
addiction, once you start; the addictive substance of the tobacco makes it
physically and mentally hard to stop. This addiction leads to several-deadly
health issues such as cancer, emphysema and heart attacks, and to help
preventing and quieting such deadly habit, solutions must be presented like:
quitting smoking gradually, nicotine replacement therapies, and distributing
awareness.
The
consequences of smoking can be seen gradually over the long term, leading to
several health problems. According to American Lung Association, “Cigarette
smoking is the number one cause of preventable disease and death worldwide.”
Cigarette contain thousands of chemicals and toxic substances that can damage
the system of the human body and cause many diseases such as cancer. People who
smoke are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. When a smoker inhales,
the heat breaks down the tobacco and produce toxics like tar which is a
carcinogen[1][1] that drowns
into the body affecting the body cells and cause cancer. Researches by Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (2008), showed that smoking cause at least
30 percent of deaths by cancer. There are several different types of cancer
caused by smoking such as bladder cancer, throat cancer and kidney cancer. The
most dangerous type of cancer caused by smoking is lung cancer; which is known
to have one of the lowest rates of survival comparing with all types of cancer.
Another common disease smokers are likely to have is emphysema. Emphysema is a
type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it is a long term disease
that affects the lung causing shortness of breath. People who suffer from
emphysema have troubles in breathing properly, their body’s does not get the
proper amount of oxygen it needs due to over-inflation of the alveoli[2][2]. This
over-inflation makes it hard for the individual to exchange gasses during the
process of inhaling and exhaling (Schiffman,); which is why smokers find it
hard to run and practice physical exercises like regular people. Moreover,
smokers are at higher risk of getting heart attacks. This risk greatly
increases with the number of cigarette an individual smokes and how often they
smoke. As it was explained previously, it is hard for a smoker to breathe well.
Smoking decreases the rate of oxygen that should be delivered to the heart,
increases the blood pressure and blood clots, and increases the heart rate;
which on the other hand causes heart attacks (Smoking Cessation Health Center,
. Smoking also causes other problems such as bad breath and bad skin.
Smokers more
than anyone else know how endanger their lives are, and they are fully aware of
their addiction’s deadly consequences. Yet, quitting such a habit can be a
challenge for smokers once they get attached. To help smokers save their lives
before it is too late, there are various ways to quit smoking. First, it will
be almost impossible for an individual to immediately quit the smoke. The
smoker has to mentally prepare himself before quitting by starting giving
himself the time to get used to the idea of quitting. The smoker should smoke
less gradually until the body also get used to less and less nicotine in its
system, and as a result, the body will learn how to control the crave for
nicotine. Another solution for quitting is using nicotine replacement therapies
(NRT), which is used to reduce the crave for nicotine and stop smoking by
replacing the nicotine from cigarettes with the different types of NRT such as:
skin patches, gums, sprays and inhalers; these types deliver nicotine to the
brain less rapidly than cigarettes (Nicotine Replacement Therapy, ). NRT made
it possible for a smoker attempt to quite. Studies by the Cochrane
Collaboration, show that “The chances of stopping smoking were increased by
50 to 70%.” (Stead LF, 2008). However, awareness must be spread especially
among young people to stop them from attempting cigarettes and smoke by
launching campaigns. According to AbuDhabiWeek.ae, (2012), the Health Authority
– Abu Dhabi (HAAD) will be running booths in several places in Abu Dhabi
calling the residents to make the country 100 percent tobacco free.
In
conclusion, smoking is an addiction that is mostly hard to quit. Having to know
the danger caused by smoking, smokers are leading their own lives to death by
their own hands. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “On
average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.” Therefore,
before the attempt to try a cigarette, people should think wisely “Is it really
worth the try?”
References
AbuDhabiWeek.ae. (2012). HAAD Launches
Anti-Smoking Campaign. Retrieved on 09 December 2012. From http://www.abudhabiweek.ae/city-latest/1-news/8561-haad-launches-anti-smoking-campaign.html
American Lung Association. (n.d).
Smoking. Retrieved on 08 December 2012. From http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/about-smoking/health-effects/smoking.html
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. (2008). Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses ---
United States, 2000—2004. Retrieved on 08 December 2012. From http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5745a3.htm
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. (n.d). Smoking and Tobacco Use. Retrieved on 08 December 2012. From
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/
Eldridge, L. (n.d). What are Alveoli?.
Retrieved on 09 December 2012. From http://lungcancer.about.com/od/glossary/g/alveoli.htm
Nicotine Replacement Therapy. (n.d).
Retrieved on 10 December 2012. From http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Smoking-Nicotine-Replacement-Therapy.htm
Schiffman, G. (n.d). Emphysema.
Retrieved on 09 December 2012. From http://www.emedicinehealth.com/emphysema/article_em.htm
Smoking Cessation Health Center. (n.d).
Smoking and Heart Disease. Retrieved on 10 December 2012. From http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/quit-smoking-heart
Snus News & Other Tobacco Products.
(2011). UAE - very sad - 40% of teenagers between ages of 13 and 15 smoke. Retrieved on 08 December 2012.
From http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2010/12/uae-very-sad-40-of-teenagers-between.html
Stead LF, Perera R, Bullen C,Mant D,
Lancaster T. Nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
(2008), Issue 1. Art. No.: CD000146. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000146.pub3.
Retrieved on 10 December 2012. From http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/userfiles/ccoch/file/World%20No%20Tobacco%20Day/CD000146.pdf
What is Carcinogen?. (n.d). Definition
and Meaning. Retrieved on 08 December 2012. From http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/carcinogen.html
Saturday,
November 10, 2012
The
Bedouin knew how to navigate in the desert and how to find water. In the desert
it’s hard to live but the UAE’s Bedouins have managed to survive by saving
food, water and shelter. Bedouins knew where the wells were and how many there
were. On the other hand, there were Bedouins who followed birds. Bedouins dug
wells with their bare hands and the wells were from 3 to 10 meters also, they
can tell if there is water by the vegetation of the ground. Bedouins even knew
how to desalinate seawater and make it potable by a water vessel called a
qebra. Some Bedouins killed camels because of the water in their body; a camel
can drink 100 liters of water and can store it for a long time. Milk of camels
and goats can replace water. Bedouins can stand dehydration better than most.
146 words
146 words
Cows are animals that
don’t like dry lands like deserts with an enormous amount of heat and lack
of water. Al Marai is a company that produces milk for the Middle East; it
started producing milk with 300 cows and it has now 135,00 Holstein cows. The
company produces many kinds of dairy products such as yoghurt, cheese,
milk and laban. The company has 6 super farms, which are in Saudi Arabia. In
the old days the milk was from camels and goats and
some came in cans, condensed or powdered milk. In Dubai duty free there are
some products, which are known for their popularity. Now fresh milk is
king.
109 words
109 words
As the sun sets in the desert, the horsemen
that are considered the eyes of the desert start their work through the dunes.
They search for any troublemakers or suspicious events around Al Awafie desert.
They are part of the RAK police patrol division. These men are responsible for
areas that are hard to be reached by cars. All horses are trained not to be
frightened by high sounds such as buggies, because some people try to distract
them. Most horsemen are from India and trying to recruit Emirati people instead
didn’t succeed. Each patrol group consists of 6-8 men; they cover up to 6
kilometers, and the shift is about 4 hours. In conclusion, horse patrols are an
important division to complete the work of the police force.
131 words
Inside the Atlas
Mountains of Morocco, there are people taking care of small chicks. In North
Africa houbara bustards are becoming extinct because of poaching, over hunting
and destruction of their natural habitat. The Emirates Center for wild life
propagation started a plan since 1995 till now and produced 60,000 of the
houbara bustards. The center is in the town of Missour in Morocco. Many centers
were established in a variety of countries such as China, the UAE, Kazakhstan
and Turkmenistan. There are some plans for the future in Morocco to expand the
lease to 15,000 birds per season; every hatched bird has a purpose, some for
breeding and some to be released into the wild. The center must
process 600 semen samples for breeding. They do up to 400 insemination a
day. Chicks that are for release are kept away from humans until they are nine
months old. Only 65% of the released birds survive. They track their
environment by satellite devices. The project is a success and the numbers are
going up.
175 words
175 words
I started my English
course in writing skills and how to summarize a paragraph. In this course
Mr. Hedley helped me and my classmates to summarize an article and write it in
a good way. I learned how to scan a paragraph and use its information to write
a summary and choose its best title. I’ve learned how to use good
vocabulary in my summary and how to organize the information into facts and
important sentences. The other thing is I have learned how to use a blog and
get benefit from it. I post my blogs and our teacher Mr. Hedley checks our
blogs.
In conclusion, I’ve learned how to summarize a paragraph in
30 minutes and how to write a reflection.
123 Words
Economic
Elasticity
Demand
& Supply
Introduction:
Economic elasticity is a tool, which
helps to measure different economic variables with one another. For an example
it helps to identify and measure the economic variables like price and demand.
Measurements of economic variables are important in economic activities, which
help us understand the economic activities, and in decision-making. It helps us
understand the problem of scarcity,
which is the problem of fulfilling the unlimited wants of humankind with
limited or scarce resources.
Origin:
Alfred Marshall (1842 – 1924)
contributed much to economics. He is the first one to introduce the demand
supply analysis and the concept of elasticity. According to Marshall "The elasticity (or responsiveness) of demand
in a market is great or small according as the amount demanded increases much
or little for a given fall in price, and diminishes much or little for a given
rise in price".
Price Elasticity of Demand:
According to the Elasticity of Demand,
if the price of the commodity goes up then the quantity of the commodity falls;
both are inversely proportional to each other.
Types of Economic
Elasticity:
Elasticity is the
percentage of change in quantity with respect to the change in price. There are
three types of economic elasticity; they are Elastic, Inelastic and Unitary
Elastic.
Elastic Demand and Supply
When the price of a
commodity falls to a certain percentage but the impact of the price increase
leads to drastically reduce the demand of the commodity to more than
proportionate levels then it is called elastic demand. If the elasticity is
greater than or equal to one then the curve is considered to be elastic.
Inelastic Demand and Supply:
In this case a small increase in price
will have less than proportionate amount of impact on the demand; that is a
small increase in price will bring about a small decrease in demand; it is
otherwise called ‘low price-elasticity of demand’. In this case a price
increase in 5% will bring about a fall in quantity demanded by people of less
than 5%. If the elasticity is less than one then the curve is said to be
inelastic.
When
E< 1, this is a case of inelastic demand
Supply and Demand:
It is regarding the effects on price
and quantity in a market. It helps to predict and maintain the economic
equilibrium of price and quantity by analyzing the functions of price and
quantity demanded.
Factors Affecting the Demand
Elasticity:
The most important factor which
influences the elasticity of goods or supply is the availability of
substitutes. If some other substitutes are available in the market, the price
increases of the good will encourage the buyers to switch their choices to
another product.
Another important factor is the goods
that are used regularly and if the price goes up, buyers tend to reduce the
quantity consumed.
The third factor is time that is if the
price increase is certain it will have an effect on demand. For example, if a pack
of cigarettes goes up, and the buyers find it hard to afford then slowly they
will come out of the habit of smoking.
Conclusion:
The elasticity varies among the
products because some commodities are more essential than the others. The goods
and services are considered to be highly elastic and if a slight change is made
to the price it leads to sharp change in the quantity demanded.
Sources:
Automobile Prices in Market
equilibrium, Econometrica 63 (July 1995), S Berry, J Levinson and A. Pakes
Principles of Economics, Arthur
O'Sullivan and Steven M. Sheffrin, 1st edition, Prentice Hall, (2002).
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/sdas/elasticity/
http://www.springer.com/economics/development/book/978-0-387-24292-7
