Cigarettes
The basic components of most cigarettes are tobacco, chemical additives, a filter, and paper wrapping. Smokers are exposed to a toxic mix of over 7,000 chemicals when they inhale cigarette smoke.
Health risks:
- Smoking increases the risk of:
- Coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times
- Stroke 2 to four times
- Men developing lung cancer by 25 times
- Women developing lung cancer by 25.7 times
- Cataracts (clouding of the eye’s lens)
- Smoking can affect a baby’s health before and after birth.<spanconverted-space”> It increases risks for:
- Preterm (early) delivery
- Stillbirth (death of the baby before birth
- Low birth weight
- Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS or crib death)
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Orofacial clefts in infants
- Smoking affects bone health.
- Smoking is a cause of type 2 diabetes mellitus and can cause rheumatoid arthritis.
References:
https://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/ProductsIngredientsComponents/ucm482563.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014 [accessed 2017 Apr 20].
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010 [accessed 2017 Apr 20].
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General, 2001 [accessed 2017 Apr 20].