BBC 6分钟英语 香烟与电子烟

English from BBC, learning English. Hello.

I'm Rob. Welcome to Six Minute English.

I'm joined today by Finn. Hello, rob.

Today, we're going to talk about electronic cigarettes, also called e cigarettes, and teach you words that will help you to discuss the subject or understand news about it.

Let's start by asking you, fin Do you smoke?

No, I don't drive, although sometimes the smoke from other people's cigarettes, you know, it makes me cough like that.

Yes, it's because you are a secondary smoker.

In other words, you're someone who doesn't smoke, but breathe in the smoke from someone else's cigarette, and this smoke is very harmful to your health.

So here is today's question fint Go ahead.

According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke.

How many of these are known to be harmful to our health?

Is it at least a 50?

Be 150, or see 250? Rob You know, I honestly have no idea.

Let's say see 250. Always the pessimist.

Well, you'll get the answer at the end of the program.

Some estimates say there are more than a million people using e cigarettes just in the UK.

But these devices might not be very safe for secondary smokers.

Really. I thought they were OK, because they produce vapor that's water in the form of gas, rather than the smoke full of harmful chemicals that you get in ordinary cigarettes.

Well, the World Health Organization is not convinced e cigarettes are any safer to secondary smokers.

It's recommended a ban on the use of electronic cigarettes indoors and their sale to people under 18 years old.

A ban. In other words, they don't want them to be permitted indoors anymore.

Well, I know that e cigarettes work by heating liquid nicotine.

Now, nicotine is the substance in tobacco, which makes it addictive, and it turns this into vapor, which is then breathed in by the smoker.

You see, I thought it was okay because it was just vapor, and therefore ok for non smokers too.

Well, you see, it's vapor with some chemicals in it, right?

And experts fear it could have similar effects to the smoke produced by ordinary cigarettes.

Listen to what Professor John Ashton has to say.

He's from the Faculty of Public Health here in the UK.

Which words does he use to describe the use of e cigarettes for an extended period of time?

There are scientists in America who have been studying 2nd hand effects of tobacco smoke, who are raising these issues now about the e cigarettes.

And we really can't allow these things to get established before we know what the long term effects are going to be.

He talks about long term effects, and he means that the constant use of e cigarettes for an extended period of time might cause harm, which we're not aware of yet.

You can't light up a cigarette in a pub or bar anymore.

It was the effect of people cigarette smoke on others that led to the ban on ordinary cigarettes in Britain.

Private companies and the authorities are keen not to risk bringing back any kind of a smoking to close spaces in public places.

This is likely to annoy many smokers who've been moving to electronic cigarettes in an attempt to cut down on nicotine, or even to quit smoking.

Yes, many people want to quit smoking, stop smoking at once, and they find it easier to do this if they can use e cigarettes.

In the last few decades, smokers have been feeling persecuted.

Well, there's a lot of pressure on them to quit the habit.

Let's listen to this smoker who uses e cigarettes.

He's in a pub in Bristol.

Which one does he use? To talk about the harm certain things do to children.

We react to absolutely everything in this world.

What what we're going to have eventually?

The the Lord drinking beer and pubs, because it's damaging for, you know, for children to watch it happening.

He uses the word damaging, meaning harmful.

He complains that there's an overreaction to things like cigarettes and alcohol.

Yes, an overreaction means responding to something in a way which is more forceful than required.

He complained that one day the authorities might end up banning people from drinking alcohol in pumps.

Pubs, as we know, are bars to which most customers go to drink alcohol.

And I think he's using some irony here, maybe making a joke there.

I think he's a bit well.

The right to smoke or not smoke generates passionate debates.

But here are some facts which might make people who are about to light up a cigarette think again.

Maybe I told you earlier in the program that there are more than 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, and I asked you how many of these are known to be harmful to health?

The options were at least 50, 150 or 250.

I said 250. Is it as many as that?

Rob It is as many as that?

Yes, at least

250. According to the World Health Organization website, it says that more than 50 chemicals in tobacco smoke are known to cause cancer.

Any amount of secondhand tobacco smoke is thought to be unsafe, and secondhand smoke causes more than 600000 early deaths per year.

Well, as we're nearly at the end of the program, let's just remember some of the words we used to daphin.

Okay, we heard cough. Secondary smoker, vapor, ban, nicotine.

Long term quit smoking. Damaging overreaction.

Thanks, finn. That's it for this program.

Please join us again soon for six minute English from BBC.

Learning English. Bye. Bye.

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