Health Hazards of Tobacco

Smoking is a health hazard because so many people lose their lives due to smoking-related diseases. Smoking affects different parts of your body such as the heart, lungs, and brain. The chemicals and poisons in cigarettes can cause emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, and cancer. One in two smokers dies prematurely from smoking. Lung cancer accounts for 22% of cancer deaths, and it is the most common type of cancer. One in four people that develop cancer get lung cancer.

Also 90% of the people who get cancer of the mouth and throat get it because they used tobacco. Different types of cancer also include liver, stomach, bladder, kidney, and cervical cancer. Forty years of smoking causes a 60% greater chance of getting breast cancer. And if a person smokes a pack or more a day the risk is 83% higher.

There are 1.1 billion tobacco users worldwide. Smoking can also ruin your appearance by staining your teeth, yellowing your fingernails, and causes wrinkles, gum disease, tooth decay, and bad breath. Smoking can cause a decrease in athletic performance, such as not being able to run fast or jump as high. Chronic coughing, more phlegm in your mouth, and asthma are also effects that smoking can have on your body.

The following pictures are very graphic. If you are at all squeamish do not look at the following:


Gangrene - due to decreased blood flow caused by smoking

Mouth cancer and Lip cancer

Lip cancer caused by years of smoking

These picture came from smoker's body parts. These are actual images and have not been enhanced or altered in any way.

Is this what you want your body to look like?