How2Day: Risks of Smoking List

Cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of death in the United States, according to Health.com. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that cigarette smoking causes 443,000 deaths per year. Smoking reduces the general health of smokers and of people who are exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke, and causes a number of serious and life-threatening illnesses.

The CDC indicates that cigarette smoking causes 80 percent of all lung cancer deaths in women and 90 percent of lung cancer deaths in men. However, smoking also causes a variety of other cancers. Cancer of the oral cavity affects the mouth. Oral cancer represents around 4 percent of all cancers, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation. Roughly 34,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer in the United States each year, while approximately 8,000 die of the disease. Patients who use excessive amounts of both alcohol and tobacco are at particularly high risk.

Women who smoke or who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke are two or three times more likely than other women to develop breast cancer, while men are at higher risk of developing prostate cancer or stomach cancer. Both men and women increase their risk of developing leukemia, bladder cancer and kidney cancer, among other cancers.

Smoking increases the risk of coronary artery or heart disease by damaging the cells that line the arteries and blood vessels around the heart. The nicotine in cigarettes narrows the blood vessels, which raises the blood pressure and increases the heart rate. Carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke decreases the oxygen that goes to the heart. Smoking also increases blood clotting; a blood clot in the brain causes stroke. Cigarette smoke hardens the arteries, which increases the risk of heart attack. In addition, women who smoke and use birth control pills are at serious risk of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.

Women who smoke have a higher risk of reproductive problems and pregnancy complications, according to the 2001 Surgeon General's Report. They sometimes have more difficulty becoming pregnant and have higher rates of ectopic pregnancies, which are pregnancies that occur inside the fallopian tubes or outside of the uterus. Women who smoke have higher rates of spontaneous miscarriage, heavy bleeding or hemorrhaging during the birth, and a higher risk of premature labor or delivery. Babies born to mothers who smoke have lower birth weights, which raises the infant's risk of being born dead or of dying shortly after delivery. Babies whose mothers smoke also are at higher risk of dying from SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome.

Smoking causes emphysema, a condition where the air sacs in the lungs lose their elasticity, which makes breathing difficult and painful. People with emphysema have coughing, shallow breathing, tiredness, sleep problems and heart issues. Emphysema, which develops over a long period of time, severely curtails the person's daily activities. Other respiratory issues include chronic bronchitis, an inflammatory condition of the bronchial tubes characterized by a long-term wet cough, as well as asthma in babies and small children.

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