Smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in America, according to the American Lung Association. More than 20.6 percent of American adults were smokers in 2008, and in 2007 more than 20 percent of high school students were smokers. Smoking tobacco damages almost every organ of your body, according to the American Lung Association. Despite the detrimental effects on your body, it's never too late to quit. Just minutes after smoking your last cigarette, your body will begin returning to a healthier state, according to the American Cancer Society.
Toxic Chemicals
Cigarettes contain more than 600 chemicals, and tobacco smoke contains more than 4,800 chemicals, including at least 69 known carcinogens, according to the American Lung Association. Among the toxic compounds are arsenic, benzene, chloroform, lead and acrylamide. Cigarettes are addictive because of nicotine, which is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the United States, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Cancer
One of the biggest risks of smoking tobacco is lung cancer. Men who smoke are 23 times more likely than nonsmokers to develop lung cancer, and women are 13 times more likely. Overall, smoking accounts for 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in women, according to the National Cancer Institute. Smoking tobacco products also increases your risk of developing many other types of cancer, including kidney, bladder, cervical, pancreatic and cancer of the mouth and throat.
Lung Disease
When you smoke, the airways and air sacs in the lungs are damaged, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This damage can cause serious and chronic lung conditions such as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Smokers are also more likely to develop bronchitis and other lung infections and can worsen symptoms of asthma and other respiratory conditions.
Heart Disease
Smoking also greatly increases your chance of developing heart disease. For example, smokers are two to four times more likely to develop coronary artery disease—the leading cause of death in America, according to the CDC. Additionally, a person's chance of suffering a heart attack increases with the number of cigarettes they smoke each day, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Smokers who smoke a pack or more a day have double the heart attack risk of nonsmokers. Other heart conditions that smokers are more likely to develop include abdominal aortic aneurysms and peripheral vascular disease.
Reproductive Health
Women who smoke might have a more difficulty getting pregnant than those who do not. Furthermore, smoking during pregnancy can cause stillbirth, preterm labor and low birth weight in newborns, according to the CDC. Smoking during or after pregnancy increases your baby's risk of dying from sudden infant death syndrome. Tobacco also might affect a man's fertility. According to University of Iowa Health Care, tobacco smoking might affect a man's overall sperm count as well as the function and motility of his sperm.
Secondhand Smoke
Smoking isn't harmful to just your health. Those around you also are at risk for developing serious—possibly deadly—health conditions because of your smoking. About 3,400 non-smoking Americans die of lung cancer each year, and 46,000 nonsmokers who live with smokers succumb to heart disease every year, according to the American Cancer Society. Children also get ill living with parents and other adults who smoke. More than 750,000 middle ear infections annually are caused by smoking, and children 18 months and younger suffer between 150,000 and 300,000 lung infections each year because of smoking.
