Therefore, it is unlikely that diving causes significant MRI detected white spots. A different study suggested that smokers had more white spots than nonsmokers. This might indicate that smoking causes subclinical brain damage. Other studies have shown that divers have more high frequency hearing loss than non-divers and this hearing loss is correlated with the number of years the diver has been diving. Although we now know that divers do not suffer hearing loss from diving, it has been clearly documented that smokers suffer more high frequency hearing loss than nonsmokers.
Smoking has many complex effects on the lungs.
It paralyzes the ciliary hair cells lining the large airways for approxi mately one hour after one cigarette. In chronic smokers, the ciliary cells are destroyed. This increased production of mucous combined with reduced removal of the mucous increases the likelihood that a mucous plug will block or partially block a large airway, trapping the gas beyond the blockage. To add even further insult to injury, if a smoker stops smoking, the production of mucous actually increases for the first week. Smoking increases the production of mucous in the nose and sinuses.