Tobacco contains thousands of toxic chemicals that are released into your system when you smoke or chew the leaf. According to the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States, there are more than 50 known cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke and other poisons such as hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, butane, ammonia, toluene, arsenic and lead. These toxins cause toxic damage or trigger cancers that damage major organs throughout your body.
Cancer
Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, many of which are toxins, some of which are known to cause cancer. If you are a woman who smokes, you are 13 times more likely to develop lung cancer than a non-smoker. A man who smokes is 23 times more likely to get lung cancer than a non-smoker, according to a Centers for Disease Control Surgeon General's Report: Smoking and Tobacco Use, 2004.
The risk of cancer from smoking is not limited to the lungs. A variety of other cancers have also been directly linked to smoking, such as head and throat cancers (mouth, nose, tongue, nasal sinus, oesophagus), cancers in blood and bone marrow and cancers in other organs such as kidney, liver, bladder, stomach, ureter and cervix.
Lung Disease
New smokers typically cough when they smoke their first cigarette, because coughing is a protective response to try to eliminate irritating compounds from the sensitive cells lining the lungs. These cells have tiny hairs called cilia, which move back and forth, sweeping irritants away. Over time, the toxins in smoke deadens this protective response, allowing toxins to remain in contact with the lung cells for a long time and causing lung damage.
Smoking over the longer term causes progressive damage to the air sacs (alveoli) and airways of the lung resulting in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the fourth leading cause of death among adults in the United States. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are two kinds of COPD.
Smoking also damages your immune system, making you more susceptible to lung infections and pneumonia.
Cardiovascular Disease
The number one cause of death in the United States is coronary heart disease, in which the arteries around the heart become clogged with fatty deposits, limiting blood flow to the heart and causing a heart attack. Smoking is a direct cause of coronary heart disease, according to the 2004 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Heart Disease.
Smoking doubles your risk of stroke, the third leading cause of death in the United States. Smoking damages blood vessels and increases the chance of blood clots forming in blood vessels, which causes stroke.
Smoking causes damage to the smaller vessels and capillaries, restricting blood flow to the feet and hands, which can lead to numbness and pain. If poor circulation continues, the limb can develop gangrene and may have to be amputated.
Smoking over the long term is a primary cause of congestive heart failure, a condition in which the heart slowly weakens and ultimately fails, causing death.
Years of smoking weaken blood vessels and even the largest blood vessels are subject to failure. Smoking can cause sudden death by causing the main blood vessel in your body, the aorta, to suddenly rupture in an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
