Recreational Drugs

1. Recreational Drugs Noadswood Science, 2011

2. Recreational Drugs • To know the health risks involved with smoking and drinking alcohol

3. Smokers & Non-smokers • Summarise the data in the table below into a couple of key sentences…

4. 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: - • Nicotine • Carbon monoxide • Carcinogens • Second hand smoke is just as dangerous!

5. 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

6. Smoking

7. 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)

8. Quit Smoking • There are generally two methods of stopping smoking: - • “Cold turkey” – stopping completely with no help • Nicotine Replacement Therapy – e.g. patches, gum etc... • What are the advantages / disadvantages

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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)

13. Quantity • Complete the alcohol concentration worksheet

14. 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

15. True Or False

16. 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

17. 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)

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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