How smoking affects your body

Every cigarette you smoke is harmful

Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable deaths in England, accounting for nearly 80,000 deaths each
year. One in two smokers will die from a smoking-related disease.

If you could see the damage, you'd stop.

Circulation

When you smoke, the poisons from the tar in your cigarettes enter your blood. These poisons in your
blood then:

Make your blood thicker, and increase chances of clot formation

Increase your blood pressure and heart rate, making your heart work harder than normal

Narrow your arteries, reducing the amount of oxygen rich blood circulating to your organs.

Together, these changes to your body when you smoke increase the chance of your arteries narrowing
and clots forming, which can cause a heart attack or stroke.

Heart

Smoking damages your heart and your blood circulation, increasing the risk of conditions such as
coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease (damaged blood vessels) and
cerebrovascular disease (damaged arteries that supply blood to your brain).

Carbon monoxide from the smoke and nicotine both put a strain on the heart by making it work faster.
They also increase your risk of blood clots. Other chemicals in cigarette smoke damage the lining of your
coronary arteries, leading to furring of the arteries.

In fact, smoking doubles your risk of having a heart attack, and if you smoke you have twice the risk of
dying from coronary heart disease than lifetime non-smokers.

The good news is that after only one year of not smoking, your risk is reduced by half. After stopping for
15 years, your risk is similar to that of someone who has never smoked.

Stomach

Smokers have an increased chance of getting stomach cancer or ulcers. Smoking can weaken the muscle
that controls the lower end of your gullet (oesophagus) and allow acid from the stomach to travel in the
wrong direction back up your gullet, a process known as reflux.

Smoking is a significant risk factor for developing kidney cancer, and the more you smoke the greater the
risk. For example, research has shown that if you regularly smoke 10 cigarettes a day, you are one and a
half times more likely to develop kidney cancer compared with a non-smoker. This is increased to twice
as likely if you smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day.

Skin

Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen that gets to your skin. This means that if you smoke, your skin
ages more quickly and looks grey and dull. The toxins in your body also cause cellulite.

Smoking prematurely ages your skin by between 10 and 20 years, and makes it three times more likely
you'll get facial wrinkling, particularly around the eyes and mouth. Smoking even gives you a sallow,
yellow-grey complexion and hollow cheeks, which can cause you to look gaunt.

The good news is that once you stop smoking, you will prevent further deterioration to your skin caused
by smoking.

Bones

Smoking can cause your bones to become weak and brittle. Women need to be especially careful as they
are more likely to suffer from brittle bones (osteoporosis) than non-smokers.

Brain

If you smoke, you are more likely to have a stroke than someone who doesn't smoke.

In fact, smoking increases your risk of having a stroke by at least 50%, which can cause brain damage and
death. And, by smoking, you double your risk of dying from a stroke.

One way that smoking can increase your risk of a stroke is by increasing your chances of developing a
brain aneurysm. This is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall. This can
rupture or burst which will lead to an extremely serious condition known as a subarachnoid
haemorrhage, which is a type of stroke, and can cause extensive brain damage and death.

The good news is that within two years of stopping smoking, your risk of stroke is reduced to half that of
a smoker and within five years it will be the same as a non-smoker.

Lungs

Your lungs can be very badly affected by smoking. Coughs, colds, wheezing and asthma are just the start.
Smoking can cause fatal diseases such as pneumonia, emphysema and lung cancer. Smoking causes 84%
of deaths from lung cancer and 83% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD, a progressive and debilitating disease, is the name for a collection of lung diseases including
chronic bronchitis and emphysema. People with COPD have difficulties breathing, primarily due to the
narrowing of their airways and destruction of lung tissue. Typical symptoms of COPD include: increasing
breathlessness when active, a persistent cough with phlegm and frequent chest infections.
Whilst the early signs of COPD can often be dismissed as a ‘smoker’s cough’, if people continue smoking
and the condition worsens, it can greatly impact on their quality of life. You can slow down the
progression of the disease and stopping smoking is the most effective way to do this.

Mouth and throat

Smoking causes unattractive problems such as bad breath and stained teeth, and can also cause gum
disease and damage your sense of taste.

The most serious damage smoking causes in your mouth and throat is an increased risk of cancer in your
lips, tongue, throat, voice box and gullet (oesophagus). More than 93% of oropharyngeal cancers (cancer
in part of the throat) are caused by smoking.

The good news is that when you stop using tobacco, even after many years of use, you can greatly
reduce your risk of developing head and neck cancer. Once you've been smokefree for 20 years, your risk
of head and neck cancer is reduced to that of a non-smoker.

Reproduction and fertility

Smoking can cause male impotence, as it damages the blood vessels that supply blood to the penis. It
can also damage sperm, reduce sperm count and cause testicular cancer. Up to 120,000 men from the
UK in their 20s and 30s are impotent as a direct result of smoking, and men who smoke have a lower
sperm count than those who are non-smokers.

For women, smoking can reduce fertility. One study found that smokers were over three times more
likely than non-smokers to have taken more than one year to conceive. The study estimated that the
fertility of smoking women was 72% that of non-smokers.

Smoking also increases your risk of cervical cancer. People who smoke are less able to get rid of the HPV
infection from the body, which can develop into cancer.

Smoking while you are pregnant can lead to miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth and illness, and it
increases the risk of cot death by at least 25%.

CategoryCancer A-Z

Is Any Type of Smoking Safe?

Tobacco hurts and kills people. In fact, smoking causes about 1 in 5 deaths in the United States.

There are many forms of tobacco on the market, and people often think some forms are safe and don’t
cause health problems. This isn’t true. There is no safe form of tobacco.
Light, hand-rolled, natural, or herbal cigarettes

Smokers once believed that “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes had lower health risks. But studies have
shown that the risk of serious health effects is not lower in smokers of light or low-tar cigarettes.
Because of this, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned use of the terms “light,” “mild,”
and “low” in any cigarette sales unless the FDA specifically allows it − and so far, it hasn’t.

Hand-rolled cigarettes are no safer than commercial brands. In fact, life-long smokers of hand-rolled
cigarettes have a higher risk of cancers of the larynx (voice box), esophagus (swallowing tube), mouth,
and pharynx (throat) when compared with smokers of machine-made cigarettes.

Some cigarettes are now being sold as “all natural.” They’re marketed as having no chemicals or additives
and rolled with 100% cotton filters. There’s no proof they are healthier or safer than other cigarettes, nor
is there good reason to think they would be. Smoke from all cigarettes, natural or otherwise, has many
chemicals that can cause cancer (carcinogens) and toxins that come from burning the tobacco itself,
including tar and carbon monoxide.

Even herbal cigarettes with no tobacco give off tar, particulates, and carbon monoxide and are dangerous
to your health.

Menthol cigarettes

Menthol cigarettes are not safer than unflavored cigarettes. In fact, they could be even more dangerous.

Menthol cigarettes tend to be “easier” to smoke – the added menthol produces a cooling sensation in
the throat when the smoke is inhaled. It lessens the cough reflex and covers the dry feeling in the throat
that smokers often have. People who smoke menthol cigarettes can inhale deeper and hold the smoke in
longer.
The specific dangers of menthol cigarettes are an active area of research, but they are at least as
dangerous as unflavored cigarettes.

Cigars and little cigars

Many people view cigar smoking as more sophisticated and less dangerous than cigarette smoking. Yet
one large cigar can contain as much tobacco as an entire pack of cigarettes.

Most cigars are made of a single type of aged, air-cured or dried tobacco that’s fermented in a multi-step
process. The fermentation causes chemical and bacterial reactions that change the tobacco. This is what
gives cigars a different taste and smell from cigarettes. Cigars come in many sizes:

The smallest, known as little cigars or small cigars, are about the size of cigarettes. Other than the fact
that they are brown and maybe a little longer, they look like cigarettes. They come in flavors like mint,
chocolate, or fruit, and many have filters. They’re often sold in packs of 20. Most people smoke these
small cigars exactly the same way as cigarettes.

Slightly larger cigars are called cigarillos, blunts, or cheroots. They contain more tobacco than little cigars,
and are also often flavored. Studies suggest that some people smoke them more like cigarettes than
cigars, inhaling and smoking every day. They look like small versions of traditional cigars, but they can be
bought in small packs.

True large cigars may contain more than half an ounce of tobacco – as much as a whole pack of
cigarettes. It can take from 1 to 2 hours to smoke a traditional large cigar.

Almost all cigarette smokers inhale, but most larger cigar smokers don’t. This could be because cigar
smoke tends to irritate the nose, throat, and breathing passages. A new trend among cigar companies is
to change the fermenting process to make cigar smoke easier to inhale. The filters on the smaller cigars
also help smokers inhale.

There’s a lot of nicotine in cigars

Full size cigars can have as much nicotine as an entire pack of cigarettes.

Cigarettes have an average of about 8 milligrams (mg) of nicotine, but only deliver about 1 to 2 mg of
nicotine to the smoker.
Many popular brands of larger cigars have between 100 and 200 mg, or even as many as 444 mg of
nicotine.

No matter the size, cigars are tobacco, and they contain the same cancer-causing substances found in
cigarettes. All cigars are dangerous to your health.

Regular cigar smokers are 4 to 10 times more likely to die from cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx, and
esophagus than non-smokers. For those who inhale, cigar smoking appears to be linked to death from
cancer of the pancreas and bladder, too.

Smoking more cigars each day or inhaling cigar smoke leads to more exposure and higher health risks.
The health risks linked to occasional cigar smoking (less than daily) are less clear. Like cigarettes, cigars
give off secondhand smoke, which is also dangerous.

Clove cigarettes (kreteks)

Clove cigarettes, also called kreteks (KREE-teks), are a tobacco product with the same health risks as
cigarettes. Kreteks are imported from Indonesia. They contain tobacco, ground cloves, clove oil, and
other additives.

Like other flavored cigarettes, kreteks are used mostly by younger smokers. They are nearly ideal in
design as a “trainer cigarette” – giving kids another way to try tobacco and get addicted to nicotine. The
false image of these products as clean, natural, and safer than regular cigarettes seems to attract some
young people who might otherwise not start smoking. But they are not safer than cigarettes, and
researchers are looking into whether the cloves might even cause additional problems.

Kreteks have been linked to lung problems, such as lower oxygen levels, fluid in the lungs, and
inflammation. Regular kretek smokers have up to 20 times the risk for abnormal lung function (blocked
airways or poor oxygen uptake) compared with non-smokers.

Bidis (flavored cigarettes)

Bidis or “beedies” are thin, flavored cigarettes that originated in India and other Southeast Asian
countries. They are hand-rolled in an unprocessed tobacco, tendu, or temburi leaf (plants native to Asia)
and may be tied with colorful strings on the ends. They’re fairly popular with young people in the United
States. This is in part because they are sold in candy-like flavors such as chocolate, cherry, strawberry,
licorice, and orange. They tend to cost less than regular cigarettes and they give the smoker a quick buzz
from the high levels of nicotine.

Even though bidis have less tobacco than regular cigarettes, they deliver 3 to 5 times more nicotine than
regular cigarettes, as well as other harmful substances, such as tar and carbon monoxide. They are
unfiltered. And because they are thinner than regular cigarettes, they require about 3 times as many
puffs per cigarette.

Some people think they are safer and more natural than regular cigarettes. But bidis appear to have all of
the same health risks of regular cigarettes, including many types of cancer. Bidi smokers have much
higher risks of heart attacks, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and cancer than non-smokers.

Hookahs (water pipes)

Hookah is also called narghile (NAR-guh-lee) smoking. It started in Asia and the Middle East. A water pipe
is used to burn tobacco that has been mixed with flavors such as honey, mint, licorice, molasses, or fruit,
and the flavored smoke is inhaled through a long hose. Usually, the tobacco mixture, which is called
shisha (SHE-shuh), is heated using charcoal. (The charcoal itself produces carbon monoxide and other
toxins.)

Hookah smoking has become popular among younger people in the US as a social event which lets the
smokers spend time together and talk as they pass the mouthpiece around.

Newer forms of hookah smoking include steam stones that have been soaked in fluid and are used
instead of tobacco and battery powered hookah pens. Both of these create a vapor that’s inhaled.
Hookah pens work the same way as electronic cigarettes. Some sellers advertise that these are purer and
healthier alternatives to regular hookahs, but this has not been proven.
Hookahs are marketed as a safe alternative to cigarettes. This claim is false. The water does not filter out
the toxins. In fact, hookah smoke has been shown to contain toxins like carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar,
and heavy metals, in concentrations that are as high, or even higher, than those in cigarette smoke – it
carries many of the same health risks.

Several types of cancer, including lung cancer, have been linked to hookah smoking. It affects the heart,
too, causing coronary artery disease, an increased heart rate, and high blood pressure. Lung damage,
carbon monoxide intoxication, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, dental problems, and osteoporosis have
also been linked to hookah use. There’s also a risk of passing infections while sharing a hookah.

Hookahs also put out secondhand smoke from both the tobacco and the burning charcoal used as a heat
source.

Are Herbal and 'Natural' Cigarettes Safer?

The dangers of these herbal alternatives are just as real because they produce some of the same toxins
that tobacco cigarettes do.

It’s no secret to smokers that nicotine is unhealthy. Despite the decline in smoking over the last several
decades, nearly 46 million Americans continue to smoke cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. And some of them are turning to herbal cigarettes as a way to indulge their
habit while hoping to reduce the damage to their health.

Herbal cigarettes are sometimes touted as a safe, non-addictive alternative to tobacco smoking. After all,
herbal cigarettes contain no tobacco and therefore no nicotine, the drug in cigarettes that causes people
to become addicted. Many people even smoke herbal cigarettes as an aid to stop smoking regular
cigarettes.

The Dangers of Smoking Herbal Cigarettes

In fact, herbal cigarettes are as harmful as tobacco cigarettes, because any vegetable matter that's
burned produces tar, carbon monoxide, and other toxins. When you breathe in the smoke of an herbal
cigarette, you're breathing those harmful toxins directly into your lungs. Herbal cigarettes are required by
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to carry warning labels saying that they're harmful to your health.
Herbal cigarettes look like normal cigarettes, but contain a blend of herbs instead of tobacco. Some of
the herbs contained in these cigarettes include:

Passion flower

Corn silk

Rose petals

Lotus leaf

Licorice root

Jasmine

Ginseng

Red clover flowers

Other types of cigarettes that some consider “natural” are called bidis and clove cigarettes, or kreteks;
these do contain tobacco.

The Dangers of Clove Cigarettes and Bidis

Clove cigarettes, also known as kreteks, contain a blend of tobacco and cloves, usually 60 to 70 percent
tobacco and 30 to 40 percent cloves. Kreteks also contain clove oil and other additives. Research has
found that these alternative cigarettes are actually worse that regular tobacco products, delivering more
nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar to smokers.

Bidis are flavored, unfiltered cigarettes that have recently increased in popularity among teenagers and
young adults in the United States. They're thinner than regular tobacco cigarettes, and come hand-rolled
and tied with colorful strings on each end. They come in flavors that include chocolate and fruits such as
cherry, orange, and strawberry, and they tend to be cheaper than traditional cigarettes. While bidis
contain less tobacco than normal cigarettes, they have been shown to deliver more nicotine.

Regulating Tobacco and Herbal Cigarettes

Not only are these alternative cigarettes not safe, some experts are concerned that herbal cigarettes,
kreteks, and bidis may be a gateway to eventual tobacco smoking and addiction.

For years, tobacco cigarettes received little regulation or oversight. Only in June 2009 did the U.S.
government take steps to grant the Food and Drug Administration the authority to:

Set levels for nicotine and other cigarette ingredients

Require cigarette makers to list the contents of their products

Govern cigarette advertising

Not surprisingly, herbal cigarettes have gotten even less oversight. Regulation has been largely left up to
the states; New York is one example of a state where sales of herbal cigarettes are restricted to adults.
However, the FTC did step in to place one important restriction on herbal cigarettes: In 2000, the FTC
ruled against an herbal cigarette manufacturer called Alternative Cigarettes Inc., saying the company
falsely advertised that its products did not pose the same health risks as tobacco cigarettes. Herbal
cigarette packs now carry a health warning saying that they are unhealthy because they produce carbon
monoxide and tar.

Bottom line: Don't light up. It's bad for your health, even when the product claims to be herbal or
natural.