6 Side Effects of Tobacco

Toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your brain, heart, and other organs within 10 seconds after your first puff. Smoking is harmful to practically every aspect of your body and raises your risk of developing a variety of ailments. Smoking impacts how you look and feel, as well as your finances and the people in your life²².

Below are six main side effects of tobacco:

1 - Tobacco and the Heart

By altering your blood chemistry, smoking cigarettes can potentially cause cardiovascular disease. By smoking, we increase our chances of increasing plaque, a waxy substance composed of cholesterol, scar tissue, calcium, fat, and other material, which can build up in your arteries, the primary blood channels that deliver blood from your heart to your body, as a result of these changes in blood chemistry²³. Atherosclerosis is a disease that results from plaque formation²⁴.

It becomes more difficult for blood cells to pass through arteries and other blood vessels to reach essential organs like the heart and brain when chemicals in cigarette smoke develop atherosclerosis and thicker blood in the arteries. This can cause blood clots, which can result in a heart attack, stroke, or even death²⁵.

2 - Tobacco and the Lungs

Tobacco smoking is a substantial risk factor for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease²⁶. Tobacco wreaks havoc on your lungs’ airways and little air sacs. This harm begins as soon as a person begins smoking, and it worsens as long as the person continues to smoke. Even so, it may take years for the condition to become obvious enough to be diagnosed with lung disease²⁷.

Tobacco damage to the lungs can lead to long-term lung disorders including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Tobacco can also raise the risk of lung infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis, as well as exacerbate some lung illnesses like asthma²⁸.

3 - Tobacco and Cancer

Cigarette smoke contains harmful compounds that damage our entire body, not just our lungs. Our bodies are built to withstand a certain level of damage, but they often cannot handle the amount of dangerous substances found in cigarette smoke²⁹.

Smoking and cancer are inextricably linked. It is responsible for at least 15 different cancers, including two of the most frequent, lung and bowel cancer. Mouth, pharynx (upper throat), nose, sinuses, larynx (voice box), esophagus (food pipe), liver, pancreas, stomach, kidney, ovary, bladder, cervix, and some types of leukemia are among the other malignancies induced by smoking³⁰.

The following are the most well-known cancer-causing mechanisms associated with cigarette smoking:

1. Carcinogen exposure (cancer-causing chemicals)

2. The development of covalent connections between carcinogens and DNA (DNA adduct formation)

3. The accumulation of persistent somatic mutations in key genes

Somatic mutations cause clonal proliferation and, as a result of the accumulation of further mutations, cancer development ³¹.

4 - Tobacco and Pregnancy

Ectopic pregnancy and congenital malformations in infants have been related to maternal smoking during pregnancy and exposure to an environment exposed to tobacco, as well as other pregnancy problems, such as hemorrhage and premature placenta detachment³².

After a child is born, they are still vulnerable to the consequences of smoking, whether via inhaling tobacco as a secondhand smoker or being breastfed by a smoking parent³³. Childhood asthma, bronchiolitis, and glue ear are all linked to exposure to tobacco³⁴. It is well established that breathing and sleeping in a smoky environment increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome³⁵. Furthermore, there is evidence that tobacco exposure causes neurological abnormalities in youngsters, which leads to worsened academic performance³⁶.

Also, read to know more the side effects of smoking during pregnancy here.

5 - Tobacco and the Skin

It has also been related to skin aging prematurely, an increase in infections, and a delay in wound healing, among other diseases³⁷. Furthermore, most inflammatory skin illnesses affect tobacco smokers more severely than nonsmokers³⁸, and smokers often respond to therapy less well than nonsmokers.

Yellowing of the fingers and nails, tooth discoloration, and even a black hairy tongue are all short-term effects of smoking tobacco on the skin and mucous membranes. Dry skin, uneven skin pigmentation, baggy eyes, a drooping jawline, and deeper facial wrinkles and furrows are just a few of the long-term consequences⁴⁰.

6 - Tobacco and costs

The economic costs of smoking are extraordinarily significant, according to evidence from the last two decades. For instance, in 2019, the top tobacco corporations in the United States spent $8.2 billion on advertising cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. This is around $22.5 million per day or approximately $1 million per hour⁴¹.

Nonetheless, existing estimates frequently leave out key types of expenditures, which should be equally recognized, such as costs associated with secondhand smoke exposure, costs associated with maternal tobacco use during pregnancy, a lack of spending on education and food as a result of smoking-related costs crowding out investments, the costs of fires caused by smoking, and, finally, environmental damage from tobacco production and manufacture⁴².

In short, the most preventable cause of death is tobacco smoking. Generally, smoking has been linked to poor general health and higher healthcare consumption and costs. As such, heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer are more common in smokers than in non-smokers⁴³.

Also read to know more on the health benefits of quitting smoking, here. 

Our aim at Nicorette is to help you quit smoking for good. Find more blogs from our medical professionals and understand why you should embrace your smoke-free journey with us.

 References: 

• ²² https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/smoking-and-tobacco/about-smoking-and-tobacco/what-are-the-effects-of-smoking-and-tobacco

• ²³ [https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/health-effects-tobacco-use/how-smoking-affects-heart-health#:~:text=FDA Tobacco&text=This plaque buildup can lead,like the heart and brain]

• ²⁴ https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/sites/default/files/media/docs/Fact_Sheet_Know_Diff_Design.508_pdf.pdf

• ²⁵ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office on Smoking and Health. Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease Fact Sheet. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health 50th. Anniversary. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/50th-anniversary/pdfs/fs_smoking_CVD_508.pdf

• ²⁶ McRobbie, H., & Kwan, B. (2021). Tobacco use disorder and the lungs. Addiction, 116(9), 2559-2571.

• ²⁷ https://www.cancer.org/healthy/stay-away-from-tobacco/health-risks-of-tobacco/health-risks-of-smoking-tobacco.html

• ²⁹ https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/smoking-and-cancer/how-does-smoking-cause-cancer

• 30 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53010

• ³² Robinson, J., & Kirkcaldy, A. J. (2009). ‘Imagine all that smoke in their lungs’: parents' perceptions of young children's tolerance of tobacco smoke. Health education research, 24(1), 11-21.

• ³³ Mascola, M. A., Van Vunakis, H., Tager, I. B., Speizer, F. E., & Hanrahan, J. P. (1998). Exposure of young infants to environmental tobacco smoke: breast-feeding among smoking mothers. American Journal of Public Health, 88(6), 893-896.

• ³⁴ Rushton, L., Courage, C., & Green, E. (2003). Estimation of the impact on children’s health of environmental tobacco smoke in England and Wales. The journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 123(3), 175-180.

• ³⁵ Brooke, H., Gibson, A., Tappin, D., & Brown, H. (1997). Case-control study of sudden infant death syndrome in Scotland, 1992-5. Bmj, 314(7093), 1516.

• ³⁶ Yolton, K., Dietrich, K., Auinger, P., Lanphear, B. P., & Hornung, R. (2005). Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and cognitive abilities among US children and adolescents. Environmental health perspectives, 113(1), 98-103.

• ³⁷ Vander Straten, M., Carrasco, D., Paterson, M. S., McCRARY, M. L., Meyer, D. J., & Tyring, S. K. (2001). Tobacco use and skin disease. Southern medical journal, 94(6), 621-621.

• ³⁸ [https://www.aocd.org/page/Smoking#:~:text=Short-term effects of smoking,deeper facial wrinkles and furrows](https://www.aocd.org/page/Smoking#:~:text=Short-term effects of smoking,deeper facial wrinkles and furrows)

• ³⁹ Morita, A. (2007). Tobacco smoke causes premature skin aging. Journal of dermatological science, 48(3), 169-175.

• ⁴⁰ [https://www.aocd.org/page/Smoking#:~:text=Short-term effects of smoking,deeper facial wrinkles and furrows](https://www.aocd.org/page/Smoking#:~:text=Short-term effects of smoking,deeper facial wrinkles and furrows)

• ⁴¹ https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/federal-trade-commission-cigarette-report-2019-smokeless-tobacco-report-2019/cigarette_report_for_2019.pdf

• ⁴² https://tobacconomics.org/files/research/523/UIC_Economic-Costs-of-Tobacco-Use-Policy-Brief_v1.3.pdf

• ⁴³ 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.