How smoking cigarettes and / or tobacco can affect your health.
Cancers
Smoking directly causes the following cancers:
- Lung cancer
- Bladder cancer
- Oral cancer
- Throat cancer
- Cancer of the esophagus
- Cervical cancer
- Cancer of the kidney
- Pancreatic cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Acute myeloid leukaemia
The incidence of cancers in smokers is increased for both sexes, although the increase is in general highest in men. 20% of smokers who smoke 15 or more cigarettes per day will die of lung cancer.
If you stop smoking, after 15 years your risk of getting lung cancer is the same as that of a non smoker.
Cardiovascular and Respiratory System
Smoking increases the risk of:
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- High blood pressure (which can cause kidney failure)
- Angina
- Peripheral vascular disease caused by a narrowing of the arteries - this can lead to limb amputations caused by gangrene.
- Blood clots
- Obstructive diseases of the lung including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Graph showing the distribution of smoking related deaths
More Adverse Effects
Other adverse effects include:
- Osteoporosis
- Infertility, low birth weigh baby, cot death
- Asthma starting or being made worse
- Eye irritation
- Macular degeneration
- Cataracts
- Gum disease, stained teeth and bad breath. Gum disease causes you to ultimately lose your teeth unless treated.
- Stomach ulcers
- More wrinkles
- Impotence (caused by the constriction of blood vessels to the penis)
On average, smoking reduces your life expectancy by eight years.
Risks of Passive Smoking
The following are the generally accepted risks of passive smoking, or second hand smoke. It should be noted that over 40% of children in the US aged between 2 and 11 are subjected to second hand smoke.
- Lung cancer
- Asthma
- Bronchitis
- Coronary heart disease
Children under the age of 2 are more likely to die suddenly whilst asleep (cot death or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - SIDS). They are also at an increased risk of infections of the respiratory system.
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