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11 • Engaging in a Healthy Lifestyle

11.6 Your Safety
Estimated completion time: 22 minutes.
Questions to consider:
• What makes a person safety conscious?
• How can you improve your personal safety?

Safety Consciousness
To be safety conscious means you have an awareness of potential hazards and an alertness to danger. Simply,
you are conscious of being safe. This includes being smart about your physical surroundings and careful with
drug and alcohol use.
A drug is a chemical substance that can change how your body and mind work and how you feel. Some drugs
are illegal (like cocaine or heroin), and while others may be legal, they can still harm your body and brain. Even
prescription medicines can be abused when taken to get high or to a point of dependency.
Why do people abuse drugs? The answer varies for different people, but most want to feel good and escape
any bad feelings they are experiencing. Or they want to improve in an area of their life—for example, to get
better grades. This may lead them to start taking drugs for more energy, to stay awake longer, or to stay
focused while studying. This short-term boost is not worth the health risks and the potential for addiction.

Alcohol
The statistics are sobering. Thirty-two percent of college students who drank alcohol reported doing
something they later regretted, 27 percent forgot where they were or what they did, and 11 percent physically
28
hurt themselves. Many people consume alcohol to relax, socialize, or celebrate, but there are serious health
effects attributed to too much alcohol consumption.
You do not need to be an alcoholic for alcohol to interfere with your health and life, and the potential to
become addicted to alcohol is a serious problem that can affect anyone.
Alcohol is classified as a drug and is a known depressant, making it the most widely used drug in the world.
Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works.
These disruptions can change your mood and behavior and make it harder to think clearly and move with
coordination. This is why it is critical to never drive a vehicle if you have been drinking. Drinking can weaken
your immune system and damage your heart, increasing your risk for stroke and high blood pressure. Heavy
drinking also harms the liver and pancreas.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offers the following guidelines:
• Moderate alcohol consumption: up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for
men
• Binge drinking: typically occurs after four drinks for women and five drinks for men in a two-hour period
that brings blood alcohol concentration levels to 0.08 g/dL
• Heavy drinking: drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion on each of five or more days in the
past 30 days
Alcohol is a part of the social scene on many college campuses. If you choose to drink, you can avoid the
devastating consequences of alcohol addiction by drinking responsibly and in moderation. The quality of your
schoolwork can suffer dramatically if you drink beyond moderation. Too much alcohol can result in missing
28 American College Health Association, 2018 https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHAII_Spring_2018_Reference_Group_Executive_Summary.pdf

Access for free at openstax.org

11.6 • Your Safety

classes, performing poorly on exams, and falling behind in assignments. Have you ever decided to drink
instead of study even though you had a big test the next day? Have you missed a class because you were too
hungover to get out of bed? Did you hand in a project or paper late or not at all due to a series of nights spent
drinking? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are at risk of negatively impacting your success in
college because of alcohol.

Tobacco and Vaping
Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are also drugs. Tobacco contains nicotine, which excites the parts of the
brain that make you feel good. Nicotine gives you a mild rush of pleasure and energy but soon wears off,
which makes you want more. The more frequently you smoke, the faster your body and brain get addicted.
Tobacco is not healthy. Cigarette smoke causes lung cancer and emphysema. If you live with someone who
smokes, you are also susceptible to these diseases, even if you are a nonsmoker. This is called secondhand
smoke. Smokers are more likely to suffer heart attacks. Chewing tobacco can lead to cancer of the mouth. If
you currently smoke, there are medicines and various treatments, as well as hotlines, to help you quit.
Electronic cigarettes are marketed as a way to help people stop smoking. Unfortunately, while they do contain
less nicotine, they have many health risks.
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that people use to inhale an aerosol containing nicotine, flavors, and
other chemicals. When you smoke an e-cigarette (also called vaping), the nicotine is absorbed from the lungs
into the bloodstream, where it stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormone epinephrine. Epinephrine
(also known as adrenaline) stimulates the central nervous system and increases blood pressure, breathing,
and heart rate. Like other addictive substances, nicotine activates the brain’s reward circuits and increases
dopamine. This pleasure causes some people to use nicotine with increased frequency, despite risks to their
health and well-being.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has alerted the public to reports of serious lung illnesses and several
deaths associated with vaping. While the manufacturers of e-cigarettes would like us to believe they are less
harmful than cigarettes, nicotine is a highly addictive drug. It is best to stay away from it in any form. Ecigarettes are not an FDA-approved smoking cessation aid, and there is no conclusive scientific evidence on
the effectiveness of e-cigarettes to help stop smoking.
Smoking e-cigarettes also exposes the lungs to chemicals. A study of some e-cigarette products found that the
vapor contains known carcinogens and toxic chemicals, and the device itself can contain toxic metals.
If you are still in your teens or early adulthood, these years are critical for brain development. If you use
nicotine in any form, or for that matter any substances, you are putting yourself at risk for long-lasting effects.

Marijuana
Marijuana comes from the cannabis plant. It can be rolled up and smoked like a cigarette, called a joint. It can
also be smoked in a pipe, and edibles are becoming increasingly common. Marijuana can make you feel
relaxed, silly, or for some people, nervous.
Marijuana makes it harder to pay attention and to remember things that just happened a few minutes ago. If
you smoke before class, it is going to make it more challenging to learn. A recent study showed that if you
begin regular marijuana use as a teen, you can lose an average of eight IQ points, and you do not get them
29
back, even if you stop using.
Using marijuana makes the heart beat fast and raises your risk of having a heart attack. Marijuana smoke can
hurt your lungs. One of the biggest risks is drugged driving, which is driving when you are high. Marijuana
makes it harder to pay attention on the road, and your reactions to traffic signs and sounds are slowed. It is
dangerous to smoke and drive.

359

360

11 • Engaging in a Healthy Lifestyle

11.6 Your Safety

Estimated completion time: 22 minutes.

Questions to consider:

• What makes a person safety conscious?

• How can you improve your personal safety?

Safety Consciousness

To be safety conscious means you have an awareness of potential hazards and an alertness to danger. Simply,

you are conscious of being safe. This includes being smart about your physical surroundings and careful with

drug and alcohol use.

A drug is a chemical substance that can change how your body and mind work and how you feel. Some drugs

are illegal (like cocaine or heroin), and while others may be legal, they can still harm your body and brain. Even

prescription medicines can be abused when taken to get high or to a point of dependency.

Why do people abuse drugs? The answer varies for different people, but most want to feel good and escape

any bad feelings they are experiencing. Or they want to improve in an area of their life—for example, to get

better grades. This may lead them to start taking drugs for more energy, to stay awake longer, or to stay

focused while studying. This short-term boost is not worth the health risks and the potential for addiction.

Alcohol

The statistics are sobering. Thirty-two percent of college students who drank alcohol reported doing

something they later regretted, 27 percent forgot where they were or what they did, and 11 percent physically

28

hurt themselves. Many people consume alcohol to relax, socialize, or celebrate, but there are serious health

effects attributed to too much alcohol consumption.

You do not need to be an alcoholic for alcohol to interfere with your health and life, and the potential to

become addicted to alcohol is a serious problem that can affect anyone.

Alcohol is classified as a drug and is a known depressant, making it the most widely used drug in the world.

Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and can affect the way the brain looks and works.

These disruptions can change your mood and behavior and make it harder to think clearly and move with

coordination. This is why it is critical to never drive a vehicle if you have been drinking. Drinking can weaken

your immune system and damage your heart, increasing your risk for stroke and high blood pressure. Heavy

drinking also harms the liver and pancreas.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offers the following guidelines:

• Moderate alcohol consumption: up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for

men

• Binge drinking: typically occurs after four drinks for women and five drinks for men in a two-hour period

that brings blood alcohol concentration levels to 0.08 g/dL

• Heavy drinking: drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion on each of five or more days in the

past 30 days

Alcohol is a part of the social scene on many college campuses. If you choose to drink, you can avoid the

devastating consequences of alcohol addiction by drinking responsibly and in moderation. The quality of your

schoolwork can suffer dramatically if you drink beyond moderation. Too much alcohol can result in missing

28 American College Health Association, 2018 https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHAII_Spring_2018_Reference_Group_Executive_Summary.pdf

Access for free at openstax.org

11.6 • Your Safety

classes, performing poorly on exams, and falling behind in assignments. Have you ever decided to drink

instead of study even though you had a big test the next day? Have you missed a class because you were too

hungover to get out of bed? Did you hand in a project or paper late or not at all due to a series of nights spent

drinking? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are at risk of negatively impacting your success in

college because of alcohol.

Tobacco and Vaping

Cigarettes and other forms of tobacco are also drugs. Tobacco contains nicotine, which excites the parts of the

brain that make you feel good. Nicotine gives you a mild rush of pleasure and energy but soon wears off,

which makes you want more. The more frequently you smoke, the faster your body and brain get addicted.

Tobacco is not healthy. Cigarette smoke causes lung cancer and emphysema. If you live with someone who

smokes, you are also susceptible to these diseases, even if you are a nonsmoker. This is called secondhand

smoke. Smokers are more likely to suffer heart attacks. Chewing tobacco can lead to cancer of the mouth. If

you currently smoke, there are medicines and various treatments, as well as hotlines, to help you quit.

Electronic cigarettes are marketed as a way to help people stop smoking. Unfortunately, while they do contain

less nicotine, they have many health risks.

E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that people use to inhale an aerosol containing nicotine, flavors, and

other chemicals. When you smoke an e-cigarette (also called vaping), the nicotine is absorbed from the lungs

into the bloodstream, where it stimulates the adrenal glands to release the hormone epinephrine. Epinephrine

(also known as adrenaline) stimulates the central nervous system and increases blood pressure, breathing,

and heart rate. Like other addictive substances, nicotine activates the brain’s reward circuits and increases

dopamine. This pleasure causes some people to use nicotine with increased frequency, despite risks to their

health and well-being.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has alerted the public to reports of serious lung illnesses and several

deaths associated with vaping. While the manufacturers of e-cigarettes would like us to believe they are less

harmful than cigarettes, nicotine is a highly addictive drug. It is best to stay away from it in any form. Ecigarettes are not an FDA-approved smoking cessation aid, and there is no conclusive scientific evidence on

the effectiveness of e-cigarettes to help stop smoking.

Smoking e-cigarettes also exposes the lungs to chemicals. A study of some e-cigarette products found that the

vapor contains known carcinogens and toxic chemicals, and the device itself can contain toxic metals.

If you are still in your teens or early adulthood, these years are critical for brain development. If you use

nicotine in any form, or for that matter any substances, you are putting yourself at risk for long-lasting effects.

Marijuana

Marijuana comes from the cannabis plant. It can be rolled up and smoked like a cigarette, called a joint. It can

also be smoked in a pipe, and edibles are becoming increasingly common. Marijuana can make you feel

relaxed, silly, or for some people, nervous.

Marijuana makes it harder to pay attention and to remember things that just happened a few minutes ago. If

you smoke before class, it is going to make it more challenging to learn. A recent study showed that if you

begin regular marijuana use as a teen, you can lose an average of eight IQ points, and you do not get them

29

back, even if you stop using.

Using marijuana makes the heart beat fast and raises your risk of having a heart attack. Marijuana smoke can

hurt your lungs. One of the biggest risks is drugged driving, which is driving when you are high. Marijuana

makes it harder to pay attention on the road, and your reactions to traffic signs and sounds are slowed. It is

dangerous to smoke and drive.