Smoking accounts for approximately 30 percent of all cancer deaths, is a major cause of heart disease, and is linked to colds, gastric ulcers, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Recent studies associated tobacco smoking with incidents of stroke. A history of smoking over a long period of years figures highly in the number of smoking-related cancers. Mortality rates increase in relation to the daily number of cigarettes smoked. Persons who have smoked for 20 years or more are at greatest risk for developing smoking-related cancer.
Mortality rates increase in relation to the daily number of cigarettes smoked.
The American Heart Association estimates that about one-fourth of fatal heart attacks are caused by cigarette smoking, about 120,000 heart attack deaths per year. Tobacco is a major independent risk factor for fatal and non-fatal heart attacks in both men and women. The risk of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots increases ten-fold for women who both smoke and use oral contraceptives. As damage to the lungs continues, breathing capacity is destroyed, leading to emphysema. Emphysema is a noncancerous lung disease that destroys the elasticity of the lungs and impairs the ability to inhale and exhale properly.