[Film leader]
[Film Associates presents]
[Seagulls calling and waves crashing]
[Smoking & health: a report to youth]
[Narrator:] Have you ever wondered about smoking?
Like everyone-- [Film skips]
[Up-tempo music]
[TV spokeswoman:] Want to be young again?
To be in love--
[Couple on the beach]
[Ad music continues]
Change to Spray, the new cigarette for young Americans.
[Cigarette pack zooms out]
[Spray-- the cigarette for young Americans]
[Narrator:] Perhaps you've also read the warning
on cigarette packs now required by the United States government
on all commercially produced cigarettes.
[Caution: cigarette smoking may be hazardous to you health]
You hear much talk these days about cigarettes
and their effects on health.
Parents are talking, but so are others.
The United States surgeon general, for instance,
issued a report that caused much national alarm.
It caused people of all ages to think seriously
about their habit of smoking and about their health.
Young people, people in high schools,
have most to lose because they have most of the health.
[Music, "Feelin' Groovy" Simon & Garfunkel] "And you got no rhymes for me?
Doo-it-n-doo-doo, feeling groovy
[Narrator:] But obviously, nobody falls over dead
when he smokes a cigarette.
You know lots of people who smoke.
You yourself may even smoke.
Some people who don't smoke have gotten lung cancer.
Although this is not common, it does add to the confusion.
Well, what are the facts?
Just what do we know about smoking and its hazards
to health?
[Teens tossing a football]
What effect does smoking have on the body?
[Animation with lungs being highlighted]
Air first comes through the mouth or nose into the trachea.
Here it is divided into two bronchial tubes which
carry the air into the lungs.
The diaphragm is a sheet of muscles just beneath the lungs
that serves as a sort of pump or bellows.
The air is pumped into the lungs by the downward movement
of the muscles.
It works automatically.
We never have to think about it.
Inside, on the walls of the trachea, are the cilia.
They are microscopic in size.
But if we enlarge them thousands of times,
we would see that they look very much like wheat
waving in a field.
Their purpose is to clean the air, sweeping dust, pollen,
and bacteria back into the throat
so they can eventually be brought to the mouth.
This is what happens when a person clears his throat.
This cleaning process is aided by a very thin layer
of mucus, which is constantly carried forward by the cilia.
Here you can see the foreign particles
falling onto the mucus and being swept forward,
much like debris swept by ocean waves towards the beach.
[Ocean waves washing inland]
[Detailed drawing of lungs]
Deep inside each of the lungs is where air gets into the blood.
The lung is not hollow as many people think, but contains
small pouches called alveoli.
[Ticking sound]
The wall of each alveolus serves as a special membrane
through which oxygen enters the blood and carbon
dioxide leaves it.
The total outside dimension of the lung
is not the important factor.
It is the vast membrane area of all the walls
of all the alveoli that gives us the necessary space
to properly exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Scientists have calculated that if alveoli in a healthy lung
were broken apart and placed side by side,
they would cover an area equal to the size of this regulation
tennis court.
If a group of alveoli in the lungs
were removed or destroyed,
[Alerting sound effect]
the amount of membrane area available to the lung
would be immediately reduced.
You have seen how each part of the respiratory system
does its own individual job.
[Heart beating sounds]
But let's go back to our original question.
Is smoking actually harmful?
[Traffic sounds]
Smoke, like a number of other things, is an irritant.
All irritants that enter our breeding system are harmful.
[Jet engine]
[Rubbish can fire]
[Incinerator stacks spewing smoke]
[Man lighting-up]
But smoking is by far the most harmful.
It not only tends to put the greatest
number of foreign particles in our lungs at any one time,
but these smoke particles are also smaller.
And it is more difficult to prevent them
from reaching the lungs.
To prove this to yourself in a simple experiment, try this.
Light a cigarette and place a thickness of tissue paper
over the other end.
The dark spot you see was caused by millions of tiny particles
contained in the smoke.
There is no way to keep these irritating particles
from getting to the lungs, even with a filter.
[Tissue paper passed around]
What do these irritants do to our breathing?
Since the trachea and the bronchi
are the first parts of the system that
receive the irritant or smoke, they
are the first parts that are damaged.
Remember the cilia fibers and their job
of keeping the trachea clean?
As these excessive gases and particles increased,
the action of the cilia fibers slows down.
Over a period of time, they gradually wither and die.
[Winding down sound fades out]
[Glass breaking]
[Light wind chime tinkle]
Meanwhile, the bronchial tubes are
receiving those foreign particles
that the cilia couldn't stop.
[Light wind chime tinkle]
They, in turn, become inflamed, representing an early stage
of chronic bronchitis, or as it is sometimes more popularly
called, smoker's cough.
[Coughing]
[Light traffic, various people holding cigarettes]
Although it takes years for the lungs
to become permanently damaged, this
is definitely the beginning.
Also, nicotine and other impurities
are now entering the bloodstream by way of the lungs.
And these, like all other poisons,
will cause harm to the body.
What effect does all of this actually
have on a person's life?
The first effects a smoker notices
are relatively minor, nothing more
than a slight cough or raw throat.
[Man shuffling through record albums]
[Alarm clock buzzing]
He will also probably experience heavy coughing
upon awakening in the morning.
This is his body's effort to remove the mucus built up
overnight in the trachea and bronchi,
a job usually done automatically by the cilia,
but now impossible due to their damage from smoking.
Later, if he continues to smoke, he
may notice an actual decrease in physical stamina.
This doesn't mean that he can't join in athletics.
You probably know many smokers who do.
But most athletes agree that smoking
does impair endurance and the ability
to excel in top competition.
[Water splashing]
An outstanding swimmer will still be good,
but he can lose the expert breath
control needed to shave off those extra winning seconds.
[Splashing]
He may let the team down.
[Woman running to catch a cab]
Although this effect first becomes evident with athletes,
it is not limited to them.
Others notice it too, especially as their smoking increases.
These are early symptoms in the lives of most smokers,
only the beginning.
[Footsteps]
Bronchitis is beginning to set in.
Chronic bronchitis is much more common and dangerous
than is generally known.
As people continue to smoke, the constant irritation
causes permanent damage to body tissues, particularly
the lungs.
If we could see them, they would appear
to be literally sprinkled with tobacco stains,
much the same as the dark spot in the tissue made
by the cigarette in our earlier experiment.
The even more crippling condition
called emphysema is the result of the breakdown
in the alveoli.
When this happens, there are fewer walls
left for this exchange. [Bubble pops]
Remember our tennis court?
Breathing capacity has now been cut.
[Bubble pops]
As more and more of the lung is destroyed,
the smoker gets short of breath even with smaller amounts
of exertion.
Now normal daily activities can become major problems.
[Heartbeat sound]
The person is forced to seek medical advice.
If he seeks it soon enough and follows it carefully
his condition can sometimes be stopped
from growing worse, but unfortunately not
completely healed.
[Heartbeat sound]
Much of the harm already done to the body is now permanent.
And he must learn to live with it.
[Heartbeat sound]
If he fails to quit smoking and to follow medical advice,
he will push this condition until he can no longer remain
on his feet.
The almost inevitable result is death.
[Physician:] As a physician with the Public Health Service,
I work with patients with bronchitis and emphysema.
In advanced stages of the diseases,
we see them in intensive care units.
They need mechanical aids and oxygen to even survive.
[Physician's footsteps]
One usually thinks of bronchitis and emphysema in relation
to old people.
And to a great extent, this is true.
However, we're seeing younger people with bronchitis
and emphysema so severe that they
do require hospitalization.
I've seen hundreds of these patients.
And I don't really have to ask whether they've
been heavy smokers or not.
The answer is always the same.
They have been.
[Indiscriminate chatter]
[Elevator opens, then dings]
[Aids roll out a gurney]
[Narrator:] This man has lung cancer.
Is it because he was a heavy smoker?
Probably.
Statistics indicate an extremely high causal relationship
between lung cancer and smoking.
[Surgical suite doors open]
[River water flowing]
What is the answer?
Science has demonstrated a definite relationship
between smoking and lung disease.
The evidence is overwhelming.
No doubt, some of you who smoke don't intend to stop.
Will you get lung disease?
Chances are that you will.
[Teens climbing on river rocks]
Are you willing to take that chance?
[Boys swimming]
[Group sitting on rocks]
[Music, "59th Stret Bridge Song" by Simon and Garfunkel]
[Smoking & health: a report to youth]
[Credits]
[Singing] Slow down, you move too fast,
you got to make the morning last.
Just kickin down the cobblestones, looking for fun
and feeling groovy.
Ba da da da da da feeling groovy.
Hello, lamp post, what you knowing?
I come to watch your flowers growing.
Ain't you got no rhymes for me?
Doo-it-n-doo-doo, feeling groovy
Ba da da da da da da feeling groovy.
[Fade to black]
[End trailer]