For decades science has told us about the side effects of smoking when it comes to your health and about the diseases that smoking can cause. Aside from the health risks connected to smoking, you may experience other disadvantages; you may notice that your social life and family life are being affected as well. Consider carefully if your addiction to nicotine is worth all of the disadvantages to smoking.
Health Disadvantages
Health problems are the obvious disadvantage to smoking. The American Cancer Society warns about the dangers of nicotine addiction on their website. When you inhale the smoke from a cigarette, it is breathed deeply into your lungs. Smoking has been connected to several types of cancer, including lung cancer, pancreatic cancer and larynx cancer, as well as diseases such as emphysema and heart disease.
Skin & Beauty Disadvantages
Besides the obvious, glaring health reasons that you shouldn't smoke, you should understand that smoking affects the way you look. Princeton University warns against smoking, as it can severely affect your skin. Smoking dehydrates your skin, giving it a wrinkled and sallow appearance. Your fingers and nails will be affected from being in close contact with the cigarettes, and tobacco can stain your teeth a yellow hue.
Social Disadvantages
As cities and states become increasingly more aware of the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke, more establishments are no longer allowing smoking. This could interfere with your social life, when you head out to a restaurant or club, only to find that smoking isn't allowed and you'll need to stay outside if you want to light up. You may also find a social stigma associated with smoking that limits your friends and social engagements.
Family Disadvantages
When you smoke, your family suffers. If you smoke in the house, you are putting your family at risk for the same health problems that smoking causes. When they breathe in secondhand smoke, they also are at risk for lung cancer and emphysema. Mothers who smoke while pregnant adversely affect their unborn babies. The March of Dimes notes that smoking while pregnant doubles your chances of having a low-birth-weight baby, which can result in health problems, mental problems and even death for your baby.
