Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The Health Hazards of Smoking

One of the biggest problems facing our world today is smoking, or more specifically smoking tobacco. Study of the respiratory system and the effects of smoking on the respiratory system is one of the examined health issues in our day. Emphysema, many different cancers, birth defects, and other severe lung problems are the result of smoking or other tobacco products.

The question posed by this laboratory experiment is to see the affects of smoking related to immediate pulmonary functions on young adults.

The direct inhalation of tobacco smoke occurs first at the mouth, the smoke travels down the trachea, through the bronchi to each lung, then down to the bronchioles and into the alveolar and alveoli. The alveoli are where the greatest destruction is caused by tobacco smoke.

This experiment is a perfect opportunity to study the affects of smoking on young adults in particular, and tobacco's initial health effects on the user. If smoking is directly related to a decrease in pulmonary function, then people who smoke more than one pack a week or heavy smokers will show a dramatic difference in pulmonary measurements such as vital capacity (VC), functional residual capacity (FRC), forced vital capacity (FVC), and the ratio of forced expired volume in one second (FEV1) to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC), Compared to mild-smokers (less than or equal to one pack of cigarettes per week) or non-smokers. These will be the hypotheses tested in this lab report. If smoking does in fact affect these pulmonary functions then there will be a noticeable difference in these values between the heavy smokers, mild-smokers, and non-smokers.

The expected results of these tests would be anticipated to yield a great difference in the pulmonary functions to be tested among the groups of individuals. Greater differences among these results should be present in the data for after exercise was preformed in the group of smokers.

A previous study indicated that "Abnormal spirometry (i.e., limitation of expiratory airflow, airways obstruction, or a low FEV1/FVC ratio the degree of airways obstruction correlates closely with pathologic changes in the lungs of smokers and patients with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)". This provides more evidenced that the tests should provide noticeable differences in the FEV1/FVC ratio. Another study specifies that "smokers, ex-smokers, and never-smokers had similar FVC and static lung volumes". Which indicates this lab report should not yield any differences in FVC values between the groups of individuals studied. An alternative study also suggested that "mean FRC and RV were higher of smokers had a significantly reduced FEV1" (Clark et al. 2001). This provides more support for the hypotheses presented in this lab report will yield expected results. The final piece of supportive data states that "Smokers tended to have a greater reduction in VC, FVC, and FEV1/FVC relative to nonsmokers and an elevated RV/TLC ratio". All of these previous experiments clearly support the hypotheses stated in this laboratory experiment report, except for FVC which shouldn't be affected by tobacco smoke according to this support data, this information goes against what was previously hypothesized for the affects of smoking on FVC values.

The data was gathered using a spirometer connected via Powerlab software and measured a broad range of pulmonary functions.

Materials and Methods:

This experiment was preformed to examine the lung volumes and capacities, and many other pulmonary functions. The experiment was conducted on the students from all sections of biology 153 at the University of Kentucky. A spirometry test was preformed while at rest and after exercise, all data was collected with Powerlab software. All data was correlated and compiled using Microsoft Excel. This data should be relatively precise given that it was all gathered and collected by computer software. Procedures were followed as prescribed by the respiration bulletin-experimental guide.

As detailed previously many pulmonary functions were tested and correlated using data gathered by the spirometer, and Powerlab software. It effectively measured all of the values that are to be examined in this lab report (FVC, VC, and FEV1/FVC ratio). FRC was calculated using information gathered by the spirometer.

The level of treatment in this experiment was the amount of smoking. The three categories included level 1 (heavy smokers) and is indicated by the consumption of more than one pack per week, level 2 (mild smokers) who consume less than but up to one pack per week, and level 3 (non-smokers) which consume zero cigarettes per week.

The data was not replicated among individuals but was replicated 62 times over the entire Bio 153 department among the students; two measurements of pulmonary function were conducted on each student that preformed the test once at rest and once after exercise. The control group for this experiment was the non-smoker group, since they should have normal and unaltered pulmonary functions, given that none of the students measured have any restrictive or obstructive disorders.

The population studied contained 62 individuals, 36 females and 26 males. 34 non-smokers, 19 heavy smokers, and 5 mild smokers, this population size and characteristics were sufficient for the experiment conducted. Data was correlated into their respective groups and measured for each of the values to be tested; graphs were used to make it easy to see immediate differences among the group's variables.

Author Info:

The article was produced by the writer of masterpapers.com. Sharon White has many years of a vast experience in Essay Writing and custom essays writing consulting. Get free samples of essays and courseworks and buy essays .

No comments: