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Hazards of Smoking

What are the Risks of Smoking to Smokers?

Cigarette smoking is the greatest cause of preventable deaths in the US. On average, people who smoke die 5 to 10 years earlier than people who don't smoke.

Smoking increases the risk of many health problems:

• Lung cancer (Most people who have lung cancer are smokers or people who live with smokers)
• Other lung diseases, such as emphysema
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Ulcers
• Hip, wrist, and spinal fractures
• Cervical cancer
• Bladder cancer.

Smoking can make sleep disorders worse. Smokers also tend to get colds and other respiratory infections more often.

Smoking is especially harmful if you have:

• Lung disease, such as asthma
• Heart or blood vessel disease
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• A family history of these problems

Smoking affects pregnant women and their unborn children. If you smoke while you are pregnant:

• You have a greater risk of losing your baby during pregnancy
• Your baby may have a low birth weight
• Your baby may have trouble breathing at birth
• Your child may have more respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma

The more cigarettes you smoke each day, the greater your risk of disease. Switching from cigarettes to a pipe or cigars may not lessen the risk of disease if you continue to inhale. Cigar and pipe smokers are at the same risk for cancers of the mouth, lip, larynx, and esophagus as cigarette smokers. Fortunately, if you stop smoking, many of these risks decrease.

 

What are the Risks of Smoking to Non-smokers?

Exposure to tobacco smoke is dangerous to children and other non-smokers.

The term secondhand smoke is used for smoke breathed by non-smokers. It 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. Being near someone who is smoking is called passive smoking. If you are regularly around someone who smokes at least a few cigarettes a day, your risks of medical problems are similar to the increased risks for smokers. A non-smoker in a very smoky room for 1 hour with several smokers inhales as many bad chemicals as someone who has smoked 10 or more cigarettes.

Recent research suggests possible links between mothers who smoke and attention-deficit disorder (ADHD) in their children. Exposure to cigarette smoke may be a factor in SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). And there is a greater chance that children of smokers will become smokers themselves.

 

Developed by Phyllis G. Cooper, RN, MN, and McKesson Provider Technologies.

Published by McKesson Provider Technologies.
Last modified: 2005-11-03
Last reviewed: 2005-06-30

This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information is intended to inform and educate and is not a replacement for medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.

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Copyright ©2005 McKesson Corporation and/or one of its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved.

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See Also:

• Screening for lung cancer
• Breaking the Habits Beating Us

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