Health effects of smoking tobacco
Cigarette smoking causes serious disease and is addictive
When a cigarette is lit, the tobacco burns and creates smoke. In cigarette smoke more than
6,000 chemicals or “smoke constituents” have been identified. Public-health authorities haveclassified approximately 100 of them as causes or potential causes of smoking-relateddiseases such as lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and emphysema. These constituents
include among others arsenic, benzene, benzo[a]pyrene, carbon monoxide, heavy metals(e.g. lead, cadmium), hydrogen cyanide, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines.

Are all cigarettes harmful and addictive?
Yes, all cigarettes are harmful and addictive. Although there are a variety of cigarette brands
available on the market with different features (e.g., the cigarette blend style, diameter,length, as well as tar, nicotine, or carbon monoxide yields), smokers should not assume thatany of these features means that one cigarette is less harmful or less addictive than another.
While it can be very difficult to quit smoking cigarettes, millions of smokers have succeededin doing so.

Tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide yields
Tar is the residue ofparticles that are containedin cigarette smoke. It is nota single chemical, butinstead a mixture of several
thousand smoke
constituents. Tar ismeasured under laboratory
conditions by trapping theparticles on a filter and thensubtracting water andnicotine.

Nicotine is a naturally
occurring chemical in the
tobacco plant. When
tobacco is burned, nicotine
is transferred into thesmoke. Nicotine, while
addictive, is not the primarycause of smoking-relateddiseases.

Carbon monoxide is a gasthat is formed in cigarettesmoke. Carbon monoxide
has been identified as aleading cause of
cardiovascular disease(heart disease) in smokers.

Secondhand smoke
Secondhand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a combination of
the smoke produced from the lit end of a cigarette and the smoke exhaled by smokers. Publichealth authorities, including the WHO, have concluded that secondhand smoke causes
diseases, including lung cancer and heart disease, in nonsmoking adults, as well as conditions
in children such as asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheezing, otitis media (middle ear
infection), and sudden infant death syndrome. In addition, public health officials haveconcluded that secondhand smoke can exacerbate adult asthma and cause eye, throat, andnasal irritation.

The public should be informed about these conclusions and guided by them in deciding
whether to be in places where secondhand smoke is present or, if they are smokers, when
and where to smoke around others. Smokers should not smoke around children or pregnant
women.
Some cigarettes available on the market contain smoke-related features, such as reduced
smoke odor or reduced visible smoke. These features do not mean that the product is lessharmful to smokers or nonsmokers than other cigarettes.

Smoking and pregnancy
Pregnant women should not smoke and should not use any other nicotine products.
According to public health authorities, women who smoke before or during pregnancy are atincreased risk of:••••premature births, pregnancy complications, and still births
having low birth weight babies. Low birth weight babies are at greater risk ofchildhood and adult illnesses and even death.
babies suffering sudden infant death syndrome
babies having reduced lung function

If you are pregnant, or think you may be, do not smoke.