Just some of the Harmful Effects of Smoking

• Smoking accounts for about 80-90% of all chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema, chronic mucus secretion, chronic air flow blocks)
• Smoking is involved in 85% of all lung cancer deaths!(which is incurable)
• An individual with chronic bronchitis (which is caused by smoking) is more likely to get a bacterial infection if he/she is a smoker.
• A smoker gets more nose and throat inflammations, respiratory infections, and chronic bronchitis.

• Cigarette smoking accounts for 30% of all heart disease deaths.
• The carbon monoxide in the cigarette smoke increases the amount of cholesterol clogging the arteries.
• Smoking causes a stiffness in the walls of the arteries which is harmful to the artery and increases the risk for the artery to rupture.
• The nicotine in cigarettes can raise your blood pressure, heart rate, and the oxygen demand for muscles, especially the heart (the heart is a muscle).
• A coronary spasm may occur during smoking, which may lead to chest pain, and a heart attack.
• Blood clots more readily in smokers than in nonsmokers.

• Cigarette Smoking is the major cause of cancer of the lips, tongue, salivary glands, mouth, larynx, esophagus, and middle and lower pharynx.
• The development of stomach cancer can be directly associated with smoking.
• Smoking is known to cause bladder cancer.
• Quitting smoking will not result in a significant reduction in the risk of getting bladder cancer.
• Cigarette smoking has been linked to cancers of the renal pelvis (part of the kidney), uterine cervix, and pancreas.
• A strong association exists between smoking and leukemia.

Hormonal Problems

• Women smokers enter menopause an average of 5 years earlier than nonsmokers.
• Smoking and nicotine can alter a number of hormones involved in the reproduction function.
• Women who smoke are at an increased risk of osteoporosis.
• In male smokers, the mobility of their sperm is reduced.

Passive (Second Hand) Smoking

• It is estimated that there are about 53,000 deaths per year as a result of passive smoking in the United States alone! 37,000 of these deaths come from cardiovascular disease.
• The effects of tobacco smoke are just as bad, if not worse, in nonsmokers as in smokers.
• All of the risks for smokers also hold true for exposure to second hand smoke.
• Tobacco smoke is made up of many hazardous vapors and particles that when inhaled are harmful to both the smoker and to others around him/her.
• The smoke at the end of a burning cigarette has more particles that are smaller and more harmful than the smoke directly inhaled by the smoker. These smaller particles go deeper into the lung tissue and do more damage.
• Carbon Monoxide from passive smoke causes greater lack of oxygen in nonsmokers than the smoker. With reduced oxygen, the heart, lungs and brain cannot function properly. This leads to permanent brain and vascular (blood vessel) change. These changes are more serious in women who are on the "pill!"
• When a nonsmoker marries a smoker, the risk of getting lung cancer and/or heart disease is doubled!
• Infants and children have tender tissues and are more susceptible to second hand smoke!
• They develop many lung problems (allergies, asthma, chronic bronchitis, heart problems).
• Many develop cancers when they get older.
• Children of parents who smoke, are hospitalized more frequently for bronchitis and pneumonia during their first year of life, have more acute respiratory illnesses before the age of two, have more cough and phlegm, and have more chronic ear infections.

Miscellaneous

• The effectiveness of many medications is greatly reduced in smokers.
• Nicotine has harmful effects on the stomach, the organ that helps in the digestion of food.
• Smoking accelerates the aging process!!
• Smoking has been associated to snoring and sleep apnea (you stop breathing when you sleep).
• In women, hoarseness is 17 times more frequent in smokers than in nonsmokers.
• Excess facial hair is 7 times more frequent in women who smoke compared to those who do not!