Health Concerns

Smoking regularly, often produces an addiction to a potent chemical in cigarettes called nicotine. Nicotine is as habit-forming as heroin or cocaine. Over time, a smoker may develop problems with their gums and have staining on their teeth, fingers, fingernails, and have bad breath and wrinkling skin. Smoking can cause many health problems, some of which are serious and even life threatening. These may include:

• Cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than those persons who have never smoked, and suffer from shortness of breath almost three times as often as those who don't smoke, and produce more phlegm.
• Smoking reduces the rate of lung growth in teens and young adults.
• In adults, cigarette smoking causes heart disease and stroke. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke.
• Smoking hurts physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance.
• On average, someone who smokes a pack or more of cigarettes each day lives 7 years less than someone who never smoked.
• The resting heart rates of smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than nonsmokers.
• Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke. It also causes other lung diseases, such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
• Other kinds of cancer, including cancer of the throat, mouth, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, bladder, and the cervix in women.
• Teenage smokers are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.
• Atherosclerosis - clogged and narrowed arteries, stroke and heart disease - the #1 killer in the United States, including heart attacks.
• Early menopause, osteoporosis, and infertility in women.

Smoking and Pregnancy

Pregnant women smokers can cause problems during pregnancy like miscarriage, early or premature birth, infants born with low birth weight, and even infant death.

Smokers who breastfeed may pass harmful chemicals from tobacco to their babies through breast milk. Infants of adults who smoke seem more likely to develop conditions like asthma, and suffer an increased rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Children and adults who are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke have increased rates of pneumonia, bronchitis, and fluid in the middle ear.

Secondhand Smoke: Health Concerns for Non Smokers

Secondhand smoke is a mixture of the smoke given off by the burning end of a cigarette, pipe, or cigar, and the smoke exhaled from the lungs of smokers. Secondhand smoke is also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and exposure to secondhand smoke is called involuntary smoking or passive smoking. Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 substances, more than 40 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals and many of which are strong irritants.

Secondhand smoke has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known cause of lung cancer in humans and in 2000, the National Institutes of Health formally listed secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen. The EPA estimates secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers each year, and causes increased risk of death from heart disease.

In its 1992 risk assessment, Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking - Lung Cancer and Other Disorders, the EPA found that exposure to secondhand smoke causes increased risk for serious health effects in both nonsmoking adults and children. These findings have been supported and expanded by several national and international studies.

The developing lungs of young children are severely affected by exposure to secondhand smoke because children are particularly vulnerable. This is likely due to several factors, including children are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and have little control over their indoor environments. Children receiving high doses of secondhand smoke, such as those with smoking mothers, run the greatest relative risk of experiencing damaging health effects.

Children with asthma are especially at risk. The EPA estimates that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the number of episodes and severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma. Moreover, secondhand smoke is a risk factor for new cases of asthma in children who have not previously exhibited asthma symptoms.

Infants and young children whose parents smoke are among the most seriously affected by exposure to secondhand smoke, being at increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. The EPA estimates that secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year.

Other EPA research has found that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk for middle ear infections in children, and also causes increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The good news is that you can quit smoking, no matter how old you are or how long you have smoked. Your health, and the health of those around you will improve, and you will live longer and better as a result of quitting smoking.