Health Effects |
Tobacco is responsible for around 82% of all drug related deaths compared with around 16% for alcohol and only 2% for illicit drugs.
Smoking is a major cause of heart disease and is associated with more than 30% of all cancers including:
- lung cancer
- cancer of the oral cavity, oesophagus and larynx
- stomach cancer
- cancer of the uterus, cervix and vulva
- cancer of the pancreas and kidney
- cancer of the penis and anus
- cancer of the bladder and colon
- liver cancer
- cancer of the blood (leukaemia and multiple myeloma)
Smokers are 10 times more likely to die of lung cancer than non-smokers. Other conditions such as colds, gastric ulcers, chronic bronchitis, blindness, asthma and emphysema have also been linked to smoking.
What smoking can do to your body
Smoking has fatal long-term health effects. Many of these can remain invisible to smokers for many years – often until it’s too late.
- Over time, smoking narrows the blood vessels to your heart and brain. This dramatically increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.
- Narrowing of the blood vessels to the penis can cause impotence.
- Narrowing of the blood vessels to the skin causes premature ageing.
- Poor circulation increases your risk of gangrene.
- You have an increased risk of developing peptic ulcers.
- Your risk of developing a variety of cancers of the mouth, throat, lungs, kidneys, liver, penis, stomach and bladder is dramatically increased.
- Emphysema is a disease of the lung tissue. It becomes progressively worse with time and cannot be treated. As a result, emphysema is known as “lung rot”. Research reveals that 99.7% of long-term smokers of more than a packet of cigarettes a day suffer from the breathlessness and pain of emphysema.
- Chronic bronchitis causes excess mucus to build up in the bronchial tubes – the network of small air passages in the lungs. This is a direct result of the irritation caused by tobacco smoke. The effects of chronic bronchitis are made worse by the damaged cleaning mechanism of a smoker’s lungs. This results in coughing and blocking of the airways.
- Existing lung conditions, such as asthma, are made worse by smoking. The effects of emphysema and chronic bronchitis can be much worse for people who suffer from an existing lung condition.
- Smoking has recently been linked to an eye condition known as macular degeneration – a common cause of blindness.
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