Women, especially those over 35 years old, who take birth control pills and smoke have an increased risk of stroke or heart attack. Increased blood pressure is another danger of smoking. Smokers and people living with them have a two to three times greater chance of having peptic ulcers. In addition, smoking complicates sleep disorders. Smokers also tend to get colds and other respiratory tract infections more often than nonsmokers.
Tobacco smoke is dangerous to nonsmokers.
Exposure to the smoke, also called passive smoking, increases the risks of nonsmokers getting the same problems as smokers. A nonsmoker in a very smoky room for 1 hour with several smokers inhales as many bad chemicals as he would inhale by actually smoking 10 or more cigarettes himself. One study found that the rate of lung cancer among nonsmoking women depended on the amount their husbands smoked. Smoking affects pregnant women and their unborn children. Smoking mothers have a greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.