Cigarette smoke consists of a dynamic mixture of more than 5,000 known chemical compounds. These include both highly volatile gaseous and vapour components (called the gas phase) and larger smoke particles (the particulate phase, often referred to as tar.
Some of these compounds have cancer-causing, cardiovascular, respiratory, or other negative health effects.
Many symptoms are the result of smoking such as:
• Recurrent pneumonia or bronchitis
• Smokers cough that persist or becomes intense.
• Persistent chest shoulder, or back pain unrelated to pain from coughing.
• Loss of appetite
• Wheezing
• Neck and facial swelling
• Fatigue
• Bone fracture not related to an injury
• Unexplained weight loss
What are the health consequences of smoking?
The medical consequences of smoking exposure result from effects of both the nicotine itself and how it is taken. Cigarette smoking has been linked to about 90 percent of all lung cancer cases.
In addition to lung cancer, smoking also causes lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and it has been found to exacerbate asthma symptoms in adults and children. Smoking is also associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, cervix, kidney, ureter, and bladder. The overall rates of death from cancer are twice as high among smokers as among non-smokers, with heavy smokers having rates that are four times greater than those of non-smokers.
Relationship between cigarette smoking and coronary heart disease was first reported in the 1940s. Smoking substantially increases the risk of heart disease, including stroke, heart attack, vascular disease, and aneurysm. It is estimated that nearly one-fifth of deaths from heart disease are attributable to smoking.
The second-hand smoke causes lung cancer in adults and greatly increases the risk of respiratory illnesses in children and sudden infant death.
Health Hazards caused by smoking
Children and teens who smoke have more breathing problems, which is detrimental to overall health and physical activity.
Women who smoke generally have earlier menopause. If women smoke cigarettes and also take oral contraceptives, they are more prone to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases than are other smokers.
Pregnant women who smoke cigarettes run an increased risk of having stillborn or premature infants or infants with low birth weight. Children of women who smoked while pregnant have an increased risk for developing conduct disorders.
Statistic is that adults who smoke die about 14 years earlier than adults who do not smoke. For example, in the late 1990s an average of 440,000 Americans died prematurely each year as a result of smoking.
And it is not whole list of health hazards caused by smoking cigarettes.