Dr. M. Osama El-Arini's Home Page - Smoking and Your Health

Smoking and Your Health

Lung cancer mortality rates are about 23 times higher for current male smokers and 13 times higher for current female smokers compared to lifelong never-smokers. In addition to being responsible for 87% of lung cancers, smoking is also associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, pancreas, uterine cervix, kidney, and bladder. Smoking accounts for at least 29% of all cancer deaths, is a major cause of heart disease, and is associated with conditions ranging from colds and gastric ulcers to chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and cerebrovascular disease.

  • People who quit, regardless of age, live longer than people who continue to smoke.
  • Smokers who quit before age 50 have half the risk of dying in the next 15 years compared with those who continue to smoke.
  • Quitting smoking substantially decreases the risk of lung, laryngeal, esophageal, oral, pancreatic, bladder, and cervical cancers.
  • Benefits of cessation include risk reduction for other major diseases including coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease.


Secondhand Smoke

In 1993, the US Environmental Protection Agency declared that secondhand smoke, also called environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a human carcinogen. Each year, about 3,000 nonsmoking adults die of lung cancer as a result of breathing the smoke of others’ cigarettes.

  • ETS causes an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 deaths from heart disease in people who are not current smokers.
  • Secondhand smoke causes other respiratory problems in nonsmokers: coughing, phlegm, chest discomfort, and reduced lung function.
  • Each year, exposure to secondhand smoke causes 150,000 to 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (such as pneumonia and bronchitis) in US infants and children younger than 18 months of age. These infections result in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations every year.
  • Children exposed to secondhand smoke at home are more likely to have middle-ear disease and reduced lung function.
  • Secondhand smoke increases the number of asthma attacks and the severity of asthma.