The Dangers of Smoking
Smoking, vaping and using other tobacco products harms nearly all organs of the body and leads to disease and disability. Smoking can weaken the body’s immune system, making it harder to fight infections and other diseases. If you are pregnant, it can also cause birth defects and health problems for you and your baby.
Risks of using tobacco
Using tobacco increases the risk of:
- Cancer almost anywhere in your body, such as lung, stomach, esophagus, colon, kidney, bladder, liver and cervix
- Heart disease (illness of the heart)
- Stroke (when blood supply to the brain is cut off)
- Certain eye diseases
- Problems of the immune systems, including rheumatoid arthritis (joint swelling)
Even secondhand smoke can cause stroke, lung cancer and heart diseases in adults. Infants and children exposed to secondhand smoke are at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome (baby's sudden and unexplained death) and respiratory infections. Secondhand smoke can also cause children with asthma to have severe asthma attacks.
To learn more about the dangers of cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke, visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website.
Risks of vaping
E-cigarettes (also known as “vape pens,” “e-cigs” or “e-hookahs”) come in many shapes and sizes. E-cigarettes heat a liquid and produce a harmful vapor that the person then inhales into their lungs and breathes out.
Vaping may seem safer than smoking cigarettes, but it’s not.
- Most e-cigarettes have nicotine – even some that say they don’t.
- Nicotine can harm parts of the brain that control attention, learning and mood – making e-cigarettes particularly unsafe for kids, teens and young adults. Nicotine is addictive.
- Just like regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes can have other harmful substances besides nicotine, including cancer-causing chemicals.
For more information on e-cigarettes, visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website.