General Article Effects of smoking

Topic Selected: Smoking and Health
This article is 9 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

Smoking and cancer

Smoking is by far the greatest avoidable risk for developing many types of cancer including throat, mouth, oesophagus, lung, stomach, kidney, bladder and cervical (neck of the womb). It’s also linked to some types of leukaemia (cancer of the white blood cells).

Key facts

  • About nine out of ten lung cancers are caused by smoking, either directly or through passive smoking.
  • If you smoke, you’re approximately three times more likely to develop bladder cancer than someone who has never smoked.
  • Hand-rolled cigarettes have a greater effect than manufactured ones on your risk of developing mouth cancer.

 

Smoking and your heart and circulation

Smoking damages your blood vessels and increases your risk of heart disease and stroke. It can also affect how well your blood, and therefore oxygen, flows around your body – for example, you may notice you often have cold hands and feet, which is a result of not enough blood getting to them.

Key facts

  • If you smoke 2...

Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?

Sign up now for a no obligation FREE TRIAL and view the entire collection