Smoking
Cancers caused by smoking
Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is linked with an increased risk of these cancers:
Lung
Larynx (voice box)
Oral cavity (mouth, tongue, and lips)
Nose and sinuses
Pharynx (throat)
Esophagus (tube connecting the throat to the stomach)
Stomach
Pancreas
Cervix
Kidney
Bladder
Ovary (a type called mucinous ovarian cancer)
Colorectum (the colon and/or the rectum)
Acute myeloid leukemia
Smoking accounts for 87% of lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women, and is one of the hardest cancers to treat.
Lung cancer can often be prevented. Some religious groups that promote non-smoking as part of their religion, such as Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists, have much lower rates of lung cancer and other smoking-related cancers.
Other health problems caused by smoking
As serious as cancer is, it accounts for less than half of the deaths related to smoking each year. Smoking is a major cause of many other deadly health problems − heart disease, aneurysms, bronchitis, emphysema, and stroke.
Using tobacco can damage a woman’s reproductive health and hurt babies. Tobacco use is linked with reduced fertility and a higher risk of miscarriage, early delivery (premature birth), and stillbirth. It’s also a cause of low birth-weight in infants. It has been linked to a higher risk of birth defects and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), too.
Smoking can make pneumonia and asthma worse and it has been linked to other health problems, including gum disease, cataracts, bone thinning, hip fractures, and peptic ulcers. Some studies have also linked smoking to macular degeneration, an eye disease that can cause blindness.
Smoking can cause or worsen poor blood flow in the arms and legs (peripheral vascular disease or PVD.) Surgery to improve the blood flow often doesn’t work in people who keep smoking. Because of this, many vascular surgeons (surgeons who work on blood vessels) won’t do certain surgeries on patients with PVD unless they stop smoking.
The smoke from cigarettes (called secondhand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke) can also have harmful health effects on those exposed to it. Adults and children can have health problems from breathing secondhand smoke.
What in tobacco smoke is harmful?
Cigarettes, cigars, and pipe tobacco are made from dried tobacco leaves, as well as ingredients added for flavor and to make smoking more pleasant. The smoke from these products is a complex mixture of chemicals produced by the burning of tobacco and its additives. The smoke is made up of more than 7,000 chemicals, including over 60 known to cause cancer (carcinogens). Some of these substances cause heart and lung diseases too, and all of them can be deadly. You might be surprised to know some of the chemicals found in tobacco smoke include:
Cyanide
Benzene
Formaldehyde
Methanol (wood alcohol)
Acetylene (the fuel used in welding torches)
Ammonia
Tobacco smoke also contains tar and the poison gases carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. The ingredient that produces the effect people are looking for is nicotine, an addictive drug and one of the harshest chemicals in tobacco smoke.
When should I worry?
When many cases of cancer occur in a family, it is most often due to chance or because family members have been exposed to a common toxin, such as cigarette smoking. Less often, these cancers may be caused by an inherited gene mutation. (These are called family cancer syndromes.) Certain things make it more likely that an abnormal gene is causing cancers in a family, such as
Many cases of an uncommon or rare type of cancer (like kidney cancer)
Cancers occurring at younger ages than usual (like colon cancer in a 20 year old)
More than one type of cancer in a single person (like a woman with both breast and ovarian cancer)
Cancers occurring in both of a pair of organs (both eyes, both kidneys, both breasts)
More than one childhood cancer in a set of siblings (like sarcoma in both a brother and a sister)
Before you decide that cancer runs in your family, first gather some information. For each case of cancer, look at:
Who is affected? How are we related?
What type of cancer is it? Is it rare?
How old was this relative when they were diagnosed?
Did this person get more than one type of cancer?
Did they smoke or have other known risk factors?
Cancer in a close relative, like a parent or sibling (brother or sister), is more cause for concern than cancer in a more distant relative. Even if the cancer was from a gene mutation, the chance of it passing on to you gets lower with more distant relatives.
It is also important to look at each side of the family separately. Having 2 relatives with cancer is more concerning if the people are related to each other (meaning that they are both on the same side of the family).
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