Tobacco - Questions and Answers
If you smoke cigarettes and don't inhale, is there any danger?
Yes. All smokers have an increased risk of lip, mouth, and tongue cancer - no matter what they smoke. And all smokers, even those who don't inhale - including pipe and cigar smokers - have an increased risk of lung cancer. Lung cancer is more common among cigarette smokers because cigarette smoke, which is acidic, must be inhaled to get a higher impact from nicotine. In comparison, pipe and cigar smoke, which is alkaline, releases nicotine to enter the bloodstream via the mouth. As a result, pipe and cigar smokers are more likely to develop cancer of the lip, mouth and tongue.
Are bad effects of inhaling temporary?
Most are. But in smokers, effects of inhaling are repetitive and cumulative - a pack-a-day smoker inhales smoke about 73,000 times a year. If this continues year after year, the smoker's chances for contracting a smoking related disease are substantially increased.
Can a person smoke a small number of cigarettes without risk?
No. Every cigarette may cause some harm to the body. Even relatively light smoking may cause lung damage. However, most smokers seem to find it difficult to smoke only a few cigarettes. The more cigarettes smoked over time, the higher the risk of developing smoking-related disease.
Will quitting smoking prevent lung cancer?
Lung cancer can be prevented if a smoker* quits early enough.
• A person at any age who quits has less risk of developing lung cancer than a person who still smokes.
• Within 10 years of quitting, the risk of lung cancer drops to approximately half of a smoker.
• Within 15 years of quitting, the risk drops to almost the same as those who have never smoked.
• The younger a person is when they quit the greater the health benefits, especially if they quit before age 50.
* Some studies have shown that the risk for lung cancer will always be somewhat higher for former smokers than people who have never smoked.
Will damage caused by smoking be permanent?
Not if the smoker stops soon enough. In smokers who have stopped before the onset of irreversible heart and circulatory disease, the body begins to repair itself. Here's how:
• After 6 months, coughing, sinus congestion, tiredness and shortness of breath improve.
• After 1 year, your risk of a smoking-related heart attack is reduced in half.
• After 15 years of non-smoking, your risk of heart attack is about the same as that of someone who has never smoked
What is Smokers Cough?
The irritating substances in smoke prompt the protective mechanisms of the air passages and lungs to work against them . This causes coughing. The well-known early morning cough of smokers is a different issue altogether. Cigarette smoke has an anesthetic effect on cilia (tiny hair-like structures lining the airways) that normally beat outward, forcing foreign matter from the lungs. When cilia stop, some of the poisons in the smoke remain in the lungs. During the hours of sleep, the cilia recover and begin working again. When smokers wake up, they cough because their lungs are attempting to clear the deposits of the previous day's smoking. When cilia are repeatedly exposed to smoke over a long period of time their action is permanently destroyed. Smokers' lungs will then be more exposed to damage than before.
