Toxicology of smoking

TOXICOLOGY OF SMOKING Master's Thesis Petra Hniličková Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, Heyrovského 1203, Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology This master's thesis is engaged in problems of smoking, because smoking repre- sents with its addictive character and health effects one of important medical problems. In one cigarette is in addition to nicotine (a vegetable alkaloid which is addictive) included a large number of harmful chemicals. The tobacco smoke contains toxic gases (carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia), nitrosamines, polycyclic aromatic hydro- carbons, aromatic amines, heavy metals (such as nickel, cadmium, arsenic and polonium-210) and solid particles (mainly tar). All of these chemicals are harmful to human body and their effect is hard to predict because harmful pollutants from tabacco smoke work in combination. About 4.8 million people annually die of diseases caused by smoking. In this thesis are described the most frequent causes of death, such as car-diovascular diseases, cancer (especially lung cancer), chronic obstructive lung disease (CHOPN) and others. Individual chapters are dedicated to problems of second-hand smoke and legislative measures to prevent damages caused by tobacco products