Cigarette smoking

Cigarette smoking hereafter referred to as “smoking”, damages nearly

every organ of our body which causes many diseases. It is a global epidemic
among today’s generation especially for the young people. According to
the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, around twenty percent or 17.3 million
Filipino adults aged 15 above are cigarette smokers and there are more than
700,000 smoking casualties. Cigarette production and consumption have
seen growing throughout the years, and the health effects of smoking are
highly recognized. It is now putting pressure on earth’s natural resources and
its ecosystems, threatening the livelihoods, and development of future
generation.

Cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals, and some of these are

pesticides and toxic chemicals that can greatly damage the health of users.
There is an addictive drug found in cigarettes called, “nicotine”, that causes
people to continue despite of many reasons to quit smoking. In fact, the quit
rates are low, and it is not easy to stop smoking based on willpower alone.
Moreover, smoking is becoming addictive which brings immediate and long
term effects on everyone.

AIR POLLUTION
Day by day, the fresh air of environment gets polluted by mixture of
particulates, biological molecules, and other harmful chemicals. Air pollution
is one of the most serious problems in today’s generation especially in the
large cities with a great industrilization. Some of the main contributors of the
said pollution are dirty wastes produced by people, release of gaseous
pollutant from burning fuel of vehicles, industrial processes, burning of
garbages, and tobacco smoking which releases carbon monoxide. It also
continously damaging the ecologocial system which has already affected
the whole atmosphere by allowing harmful radiations from the sun to the
earth. In order to reduce the air pollution, we should bring some huge
changes to our habits in a daily basis.
 Clean air is vital to our health, and so is breathing. Almost all life on
earth depends on the air we breathe, but what if we are not breathing purely
clean air? The solutions to the air pollution are complicated, yet even small
actions to reduce air pollution are not working completely because it
continues to get worse everyday.

This experiment will provide students with an example of how “dirty” our
air is. Students have the opportunity to choose a location where they would
like to examine the air quality. The main objective is to determine the amount
of foreign air particles in a specific area.

Estimated Experiment Time: about a week.

Materials
• White poster board (paper plates could also work)
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Magnifying glass
• String
• Vaseline
• Permanent marker
• Notebook
• Pencil

Procedure
1. Find an area in which you can hang several cut out pieces of the
poster board. You can perform this experiment in your home, yard or
another area of your choice depending on where you would like to
examine how clean the air is.
2. Cut the poster board into several 3x3 inch squares.
3. Draw a square with the marker on each cut out piece of poster board,
a little smaller than the square itself.
4. Punch a hole in the top of each piece of poster board and tie pieces
of string in the holes so you can hang the cut outs in the area of your
choice.
5. Smear a thin layer of Vaseline inside the drawn square on each cut out
and hang them in different places within the area you’ve decided to
examine. Record the areas you’ve hung each cut out in your
notebook.
 6. Wait 6-10 days to collect your squares and examine your results.

Note: You may need adult supervision when working with scissors, the hole
punch, as well as assistance with hanging the squares in high places so the
squares are not disturbed during your experiment.

Observation
Using the magnifying glass, count how many particles you can see stuck to
the Vaseline in each square. On the space provided below, draw the
particles where you would find them from each individual square.

Square 1 Square 2 Square 3 Square 4

Results and Discussion

 Are there a lot of particles or just a few?
 How do you think the area you’ve chosen to perform the experiment in
has affected your results?
 What do you think would happen if you performed this experiment in a
heavily polluted area, such as a big city or an area with known air
pollution?
 Do you think you would find more particles stuck to the cut outs?
 How do you think the particles in the air affects the air quality and our
ability to breathe well?
 Cigarette smoking remains prevalent around the world including the
Philippines which increases risk of many health problems and death. Some
users believe that smoking can help them to be calm and keep their
emotions in control, but little did they know it gives stress and anxiety. This
damaging activity is responsible for the heap of awful diseases, contributing
to the tobacco epidemic we face today.

This experiment will give an idea on how harmful smoking is to our

health. The objectives are to simulate the effects of smoking on the lungs, to
know what smoke do to our lungs, and to know what lungs look like after
smoking through sponges.

Materials
 A big sponge
 2 Jars
 12 inch long thin tubing
 16 cigarettes

Procedure
1. Cut the sponge in half and place one half in each of the two jars. Cut
a small piece of sponge and paste in table one for comparison.
2. Cut a hole in the top of each jar big enough for the tubing to fit
through.
3. In one of these tops, cut a second hole, big enough for the cigarette to
fit through.
4. Screw the lids onto the jars, then place one end of the tubing into each
jar, through the holes.
5. Light five cigarettes and place it through the remaining hole in one of
the jar lids. Make sure the filter part of the cigarette is sitting on top of
the lid. Wait for a cigarette to finish from burning to light another
cigarette.
6. After the cigarettes finished burning, unscrew the lids from the jars and
pull out the sponges to examine them. Cut a small piece of the sponge
and paste it in table 2.
7. Put the sponges back to the jars and light another five cigarettes.
8. After the cigarette is finished burning, unscrew the lids from the jars and
pull out the sponges to examine them. Cut a small piece of the sponge
and paste it in table 3.
9. Put the sponges back to the jars and light five more cigarettes.
 10. After the cigarette is finished burning, unscrew the lids from the jars and
pull out the sponges to examine them. Cut a small piece of the sponge
and paste it in table 4.

TABLE 1 TABLE 2 TABLE 3 TABLE 4

Note: Wear a mask to prevent from breathing the environmental tobacco

smoke.

Results and Discussion

 How will you describe the sponges before and after the cigarretes are
lighted?
 How will you compare the human’s lungs and sponges when the
cigarettes are lighted? How does the two look like?
 How did the smoke simulated in the sponges while the cigarettes are
lighted?

Many ex-smokers say quitting smoking was the hardest thing they have
ever done. It can take multiple smoking attempts before they are completely
smoke free. Despite the struggles, quitting is worth it. Cigarette smoking is
hard to quit because there is chemical contained called, “nicotine” which
brings addiction to the smokers. The addiction begins when nicotine takes
over the functions of neurotransmitter. It makes people feel as though they
need nicotine to feel good. In addition, because the body has become used
to nicotine, it has a physical reaction when it is taken away. The reactions
include depression, restlessness, hunger, and headaches. In fact, people do
have a control over whether they begin or quit to smoke but it usually makes
them difficult to do it because of how nicotine affects in the body.

In this experiment, students shall focus on tobacco which causes harm

to the body, and nicotine, a drug found in the leaves of the tobacco plant.
The objectives are to perform a controlled experiment to discover the effect
that tobacco has on the body, and to discuss the effect that nicotine has on
the body.

Materials
 3 clear cups
 1 cigarette
 1 small bunch of green leaves (gathered from outside)
 Water
 Bucket
 Paper and pencils
 Labels
 Markers

Preparation
1. Divide the students into groups. Each group of students will get three
cups, one cigarette, and one leaf.
2. Decide how to distribute the materials for the experiment. One
approach is to set up a materials center and have one student from
each group collect the materials needed. A sample distribution center
is shown below.
 3. If you don’t have a sink on your classroom, fill up a bucket of water and
bring it into the class.

Procedure
1. Each group will begin with a 3 cups of water. Students should put a
cigarette in one cup, a leaf in the second cup, and nothing in third.
The cups should be labeled “cigarette”, “leaf”, and “water”. The third
cup is a control; an integral part of a scientific experiment because it
provides a baseline against which to compare results.
2. Develop a hypothesis about what is going to happen to the cups of
water, then record it.
3. Leave their labeled cups in a safe place in the classroom. Observe the
cups over a week’s time and write down the observations. Include the
following:
a. The color of each cup of water on the first day;
b. Changes in color in each cup over time;
c. The odor of each cup of water on the first day;
d. Changes in odor over time.
4. After completing the experiment, develop the conclusions and
findings.

Results and Discussions

 Which cup changed the most? Which cup changed the least? Why?
 After observing the activity of cigarette to the water, what effect do
you think it might have on your body?
 REFERENCES
American Lung Association. (2019). 10 effects caused by smoking you didn’t know about.
Retrieved from [Link]
resources/sotc/by-the-numbers/[Link]

Better Health. (2019). Smoking – effects on your body. Retrieved from

[Link]
body

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Health effects of cigarette smoking.
Retrieved from
[Link]
oking/[Link]

Irish Cancer Society. (2018). What’s in a cigarette? Retrieved from

[Link]
cigarettes#[Link]

NIDA Junior Scientists Program. (2018). The Science Behind Smoking. Retrieved from
[Link]

Philippine Statistics Authority. (2010). 17.3 Million Filipino Adults are Current Tobacco
Smokers (Final Results from the 2009 Global Adult Tobacco Survey). Retrieved from
[Link]
final-results-2009-global-adult

Science Fair Adventure. (2007). Measuring Air Pollution. Retrieved from

[Link]

Sciencing. (2019). Science Projects on Smoking. Retrieved from

[Link]

United Nations Environment. (2017). The right to breathe clean air. Retrieved from
[Link]
a project output in laboratory in chemistry for
engineers

SUBMITTED TO: Mr. Arpon Lucero

SUBMITTED BY:

Angela Cosa

Bea Marqueza

Hanika Samaniego

Izzy Daep

John Mekko Payonga

Paul Steven Abujero

Vanice Villarin
Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering