Although tobacco has existed for hundreds of years, most people weren’t aware of the many health issues that smoking can cause until just a few decades ago.
Not smoking is an important decision to make when you want to protect your health.
Dangers of Cigarettes
During the 1950s, doctors connected smoking with lung cancer for the first time. Continued research since then has shown that tobacco is harmful to health in other ways, too.
- Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 different chemicals.
- It’s estimated that about 16 million Americans have diseases caused by smoking.
- Diseases related to smoking cause 480,000 deaths each year. All types of tobacco use combined kill more than eight million people every year in the world. Just more than one million of these people are nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke.
- Secondhand smoke is smoke that’s produced when burning tobacco products. Secondhand smoke is a health risk for anyone who breathes it in the air, and nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke can die from the same health issues as smokers.
Are Other Forms of Tobacco Safer?
Tobacco use and its dangers aren’t just confined to cigarettes.
Some people think that other types of tobacco are safer than cigarettes, but this just isn’t true.
- Smoking cigars carries many of the same risks as smoking cigarettes, including cancer. Even if people don’t inhale cigar smoke, they are still exposed to nicotine through their lips and fingers. Cigar tobacco often contains more of some cancer-causing chemicals.
- Smokeless tobacco products are also dangerous. These products contain numerous cancer-causing chemicals. Smokeless tobacco also contains about three times more nicotine than cigarettes, making it much more addictive.
- E-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco, but they do contain concentrated nicotine. Health risks of e-cigarettes include asthma, cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Effects of Smoking on Your Body
Using tobacco is dangerous to every organ in the body.
Tobacco contains nicotine and more than 5,000 chemicals, some of which can cause cancer.
- Nicotine is addictive, which means that it changes the way the brain works and will cause people to crave it.
- Cigarettes contain chemicals such as arsenic, benzene, cadmium, formaldehyde, and chromium.
- Smokers inhale carbon monoxide when smoking cigarettes, which transfers into the bloodstream. From there, it reduces the amount of oxygen carried in red blood cells and increases the amount of cholesterol deposited in arteries.
- Smoking can shorten your life span significantly.
- Smoking during pregnancy can cause low birth weight, birth defects, stillbirths, miscarriages, and ectopic pregnancies.
- Smokeless tobacco can cause gum disease, tooth decay, and tooth loss. It can also cause cancer of the pancreas, esophagus, and mouth.
Dangers of Vaping
Scientists are still learning about the dangerous health effects of vaping. E-cigarettes tend to contain high levels of nicotine.
Some people start using e-cigarettes and then switch to other products that contain nicotine, such as smokeless tobacco and cigarettes.
- The vapors in e-cigarettes contain nicotine and other dangerous chemicals. These chemicals can cause fatal lung damage.
- Some e-cigarettes that are labeled as nicotine-free still test positive for nicotine.
- Vaping liquids contain chemicals that scientists still don’t fully understand yet: These chemicals can harm health in unknown ways.
- Ingesting the chemicals in e-cigarette cartridges can lead to poisoning that can cause seizures.
- Vaping devices themselves can also be dangerous; some of them have exploded.
- E-cigarette use can cause chest pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and excessive coughing.
- Doctors have coined the term “EVALI” to describe an e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury.
- Vitamin E acetate, an additive in some vaping products, sticks to the lungs and causes illness.
- Secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes puts chemicals into the air, which can harm others. Using an air purifier may not be enough to eliminate secondhand smoke.
Additional Resources
- Smoking and Tobacco Use and Your Health
- Health Risks of Smoking Tobacco
- The Effects of Smoking on the Body
- What Are the Health Risks of Smoking?
- Five Dangers of Smoking
- Ten of the Worst Diseases Smoking Causes
- How Does Smoking Affect the Body?
- Effects of Smoking
- Light Smoking: Dangerous in Any Dose
- Smoking Stinks!
- Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products: Drug Facts
- Know the Risks of Tobacco Use
- Tobacco Facts
- Smokeless Tobacco Facts
- How Smoking and Nicotine Damage Your Body
- Nicotine: Brain and Body Effects
- Five Vaping Facts You Need to Know
- Dangers of Nicotine
- Know the Risks: E-Cigarettes and Young People
- Dangers of Vaping
- Doctors Warn About Dangers of Vaping
- The Dangers of Vaping
- Vaping Dangers That Teens Should Know
- Four Major Health Risks Linked to E-Cigarette Use
- What You Need to Know About the Dangers of Vaping
- Dangers of Smoking and Vaping
- Dangers of Smokeless Tobacco
- Health Risks Related to Smokeless Tobacco