Dangers of Cigarette Smoking

Everyone knows that smoking is bad for the health. Impressions of blackened lungs line school hallways and hospital waiting rooms, but despite this people continue to take up smoking. It's very difficult for some people to understand, but the health effects of smoking touch more than just your lungs alone. While many still connect lung cancer with smoking, they are often uneducated about just how completely dangerous smoking effects can be. Certainly, we all know about lung cancer and bronchitis. But did you know that cigarette smoking is the number one contributor to heart attacks as well?

When a smoker breathes in a puff of cigarette smoke the large portion of the lungs allows nicotine to pass into the blood stream almost immediately. It is this nicotine hit that smokers crave, but there is a lot more to smoke than just nicotine. In fact, there are more than 4000 chemical substances that make up cigarette smoke and many of them are toxic. Do you know that some type of cancers are also thought to be caused by the deadly effects of cigarette smoking, including liver cancer, bladder cancer, cancer of the throat, mouth and tongue and even cancer of the large intestine?

If the above reasons are not enough to quit, do you know that quit smoking could improve your appearance? Smoking causes a yellowing of fingernails, skin, and teeth. It also prematurely wrinkles the facial skin. You have bad breath, bad smelling clothes and hair, and your children reek of cigarette smoke. Secondhand smoke that a child is subject to can lead that child to asthma, more ear infections than normal, bronchitis on a more regular basis, and more colds and illness than a child in a non-smoking environment.