How do cigarettes damage health?

Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances.

When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins.

As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt.

The products that are most damaging are:

• tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)
• nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body

Other risks caused by smoking

1. Smoking raises blood pressure, which can cause hypertension (high blood pressure) – a risk factor for heart attacks and stroke.
2. Couples who smoke are more likely to have fertility problems than couples who are non-smokers.
3. Smoking worsens asthma and counteracts asthma medication by worsening the inflammation of the airways that the medicine tries to ease.
4. The blood vessels in the eye are sensitive and can be easily damaged by smoke, causing a bloodshot appearance and itchiness.
5. Heavy smokers are twice as likely to get macular degeneration, resulting in the gradual loss of eyesight.
6. Smokers run an increased risk of cataracts.
7. Smokers take 25 per cent more sick days year than non-smokers.
8. Smoking stains your teeth and gums.
9. Smoking increases your risk of periodontal disease, which causes swollen gums, bad breath and teeth to fall out.
10. Smoking causes an acid taste in the mouth and contributes to the development of ulcers.
11. Smoking also affects your looks: smokers have paler skin and more wrinkles. This is because smoking reduces the blood supply to the skin and lowers levels of vitamin A.

Cancer

Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which hardly ever affect non-smokers.

The link between smoking and lung cancer is clear.
Ninety percent of lung cancer cases are due to smoking.
If no-one smoked, lung cancer would be a rare diagnosis – only 0.5 per cent of people who've never touched a cigarette develop lung cancer.
One in ten moderate smokers and almost one in five heavy smokers (more than 15 cigarettes a day) will die of lung cancer.

The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you've smoked, the higher your risk of lung cancer. Similarly, the risk rises the deeper you inhale and the earlier in life you started smoking.

For ex-smokers, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker.

If you smoke, the risk of contracting mouth cancer is four times higher than for a non-smoker. Cancer can start in many areas of the mouth, with the most common being on or underneath the tongue, or on the lips.

Other health problems caused by smoking

As serious as cancer is, it accounts for less than half of the deaths related to smoking each year. Smoking is a major cause of many other deadly health problems — heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke.

Using tobacco can damage a woman’s reproductive health and hurt babies. Tobacco use is linked with reduced fertility and a higher risk of miscarriage, early delivery (premature birth), and stillbirth. It is also a cause of low birth-weight in infants. It has been linked to a higher risk for birth defects and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), too.

Smoking can make pneumonia and asthma worse. It has been linked to other health problems, too, including gum disease, cataracts, bone thinning, hip fractures, and peptic ulcers. Some studies have also linked smoking to macular degeneration, an eye disease that can cause blindness.

Smoking affects how long you live

Of the 300 people who die every day in the UK as a result of smoking, many are comparatively young smokers.

The number of people under the age of 70 who die from smoking-related diseases exceeds the total figure for deaths caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents and drug addiction.

Non-smokers and ex-smokers can also look forward to a healthier old age than smokers.

How do cigarettes damage health?

Of the 300 people who die every day in the UK as a result of smoking, many are comparatively young smokers.

The number of people under the age of 70 who die from smoking-related diseases exceeds the total figure for deaths caused by breast cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents and drug addiction.

Non-smokers and ex-smokers can also look forward to a healthier old age than smokers.

Why quit smoking?

Most people know that smoking can cause lung cancer, but it can also cause many other cancers and illnesses.

Smoking directly causes over 100,000 deaths in the UK each year and contributes to many more.

Of these deaths, about 42,800 are from smoking-related cancers, 30,600 from cardiovascular disease and 29,100 die slowly from emphysema and other chronic lung diseases.