June Russell's Health Facts

Smoking

[ In-depth Information: View the Extensive Table of Links to other Smoking-related Topics on this Site ]

Smoking — Overview

[Prevalence]   [Effect on Life Span]  
[Physiology & Psychology]   [Risks]   [Statistics]   [Commentary]  

Prevalence of Smoking

One-third of the world’s adult population are smokers (47% of these are men, 7% are women) and each year, tobacco causes 3.5 million deaths a year, or about 10,000 deaths each day. It is predicted that in 20 years this yearly death rate from tobacco use will be more than 10 million people. This dwarfs other health problems like AIDS or maternal deaths.
{“Global Tobacco Epidemic, according to WHO,” ASH Review, May/June 1999}

An estimated 50 million Americans are smokers (25% of the population). About 20 million smokers try to break the habit every year, with only about a million actually managing to quit. Another million become new smokers annually.
{“Anytime’s a Good Time to Quit Smoking,” Washington Post Health, July 11, 2000}

An estimated 48 million U.S. adults currently smoke: 28% of men and 22% of women. Adult smoking has remained unchanged during the 1990s.
{ABCNEWS.Com, Jan. 2000}

The CDC says smoking among young adults, ages 18 to 24, has been rising for the first time to the level of those 25 to 44. High school rates are even higher. Banning smoking in the workplace and other smoking restrictions are the major reason for decline in people who smoke.
{John Banzhaf, head of ASDH - Action on Smoking, HealthCentral.com - May 2000}

Over one million smokers of the 50 million are stopping yearly, but one million teenagers are picking up the habit. Presently 10% of the doctors smoke in the U.S. (One fourth of the Japanese doctors smoke.)

Smoking in developing countries is rising by more than 3% a year.
{“Tobacco Deceit,” Washington Post, Aug. 3, 2000}

Effect of Smoking on Life Span

“Action on Smoking and Health” tells us that a 30-year-old smoker can expect to live about 35 more years, whereas a 30-year-old nonsmoker can expect to live 53 more years. The children of a parent or parents who smoke may be at risk from the genetic damage done to the parent before conception (because of their previous smoking), the direct effects to them in the womb, and the passive smoke they are exposed to after they are born.
{“Smokers urged to weigh the ‘facts’ during the ‘Great American Smoke-Out,’ Vital Signs, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Virginia, Nov. 14, 1993, written by June Russell, a member of Smoke-Free Charlottesville}

The amount of life expectancy lost for each pack of cigarettes smoked is 28 minutes, and the years of life expectancy a typical smoker loses is 25 years.
{“Dying to Quit,” 1998 book by Janet Brigham}

Every cigarette a man smokes reduces his life by 11 minutes. Each carton of cigarettes thus represents a day and a half of lost life. Every year a man smokes a pack a day, he shortens his life by almost 2 months.
{University of California, Berkeley Wellness Letter, April 2000}

There are some 1.1 billion people who smoke on our planet earth. Just less than one-third of all adults in the world smoke regularly. Tobacco deaths will not only occur in old age but will start when smokers are about age 35. Half of those who die from smoking-related causes will die in middle age, each losing about 25 years of life expectancy. More than 95% of the tobacco consumed is in the form of cigarettes. About half of all smokers who undergo lung cancer take up smoking again.
{“Dying to Quit,” a 1998 book by Janet Brigham}

Physiology and Psychology of Smoking

Most smokers perceive the immediate effect of smoking as something positive; a stimulant that makes them seem to feel more alert, clearheaded and able to focus on work. However, the smoker’s perception is mostly an illusion. Take a look at what smoke does to the brain.

Within ten seconds of the first inhalation, nicotine, a potent alkaloid, passes into the bloodstream, transits the barrier that protects the brain from most impurities, and begins to act on brain cells. Nicotine molecules fit like keys into the “nicotinic” receptors on the surface of the brain’s neurons. In fact, nicotine fits the same “keyholes” as one of the brain’s most important neurotransmitters (signal chemicals), acetycholine, which results in a rush of stimulation and an increase in the flow of blood to the brain.

After ten puffs have flowed through the lungs, the smoker feels energized and clearheaded, but this is partly due to the fact that this was a period which ended a nicotine depravation, and another is about to happen. Within 30 minutes, the nicotine is reduced and the smoker feels the energy slipping away. A second cigarette is lit, and there is another surge of adrenaline, but now there is a feeling of one of the paradoxes of smoking, that at one dose it can stimulate, at another soothe. The muscles throughout your body starts to relax, and your pain threshold rises.

Another 30 minutes pass and the attention of the smoker increasingly drifts away from work and toward the nearby pack of cigarettes. Nicotine prompts brain cells to grow many more nicotinic receptors which allow the brain to function normally despite an unnatural amount of acetylcholine-like chemical acting on it, so the smoker feels normal when nicotine floods the neurons and abnormal when it doesn't. “You might say smokers live near the edge of a cliff,” says Jack Henningfield of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore. “Most are never more than a few hours away from the start of nicotine withdrawal symptoms.”

The American Psychiatric Association classifies smoking withdrawal as a “nicotine-induced organic mental disorder,” and several studies have compared active smokers with ‘deprived’ smokers (those suffering nicotine withdrawal) on their ability to perform simple skill tests. These are often cited (and many were funded) by the tobacco industry as evidence that tobacco enhances alertness and performance. What they really show is that nicotine withdrawal causes dramatic mental dysfunction. Research revealed that a smoker might perform adequately at many jobs until the job gets complicated: a smoker could drive a car satisfactorily as long as everything was routine, but if a tire blew out at high speed he might not handle the job as well as a nonsmoker.
{“How Cigarettes Cloud the Brain,” Reader’s Digest, March 1995}

In 1980, tobacco dependence was listed as a mental disorder in the official diagnostic reference for the American Psychiatric Association. In 1991, the Psychiatric Association reported that smokers have a higher lifetime frequency of substance abuse, severe depression and anxiety disorders involving aggression and antisocial behavior.

The Pritikin Program states that smoking accelerates problems that come with old age, and shows up earlier in smokers, for example, premature osteoporosis. Smoking changes bone tissue, making it easier for minerals to leave the bone in solution. Smoking increases lung and bladder cancer. A smoker loses 26% of his field of vision. There is also hearing and visual impairment, taste impairment and general loss of physiological and mental function. It takes four to six days for the withdrawal symptoms to subside. After that, 90% of their problem is gone.

Risk Areas

Cigarette smoking harms the body by raising cholesterol levels and blood pressure, as well as increasing the risk of cancer and cataracts. Smoking destroys certain vitamins and creates the need for other specific nutrients.
{“Addictive substances: Nicotine,” Lets Live Magazine, Oct. 1996}

Smokers are 4 times more likely to have gray hair and increased hair loss (British Medical Journal, Science News, Jan. 11, 1997}

No amount of smoking is free of risk. The exact amount of risk depends on how long you've smoked and how deeply the you inhale, as well as genetic factors.
(UCBerkeley Wellness Letter, June 1998}

Smoking is associated with a decline in physical function that makes a smoker act several years older than he/she really is. Tobacco smoking reduces the effectiveness of medications, such as pain relievers, antidepressants, tranquilizers, sedatives, ulcer medication and insulin. With estrogen and oral contraceptives, smoking may increase the risk of heart and blood-vessel disease. Currently, smoking kills 1 in 10 adults worldwide.
{Information Plus - The Information Series on Current Topics, “Alcohol and Tobacco, America’s Drugs of Choice,” 1998}

Smoking makes tinnitus worse, says Dr. Harold Pillsbury, University of NC, Professor of Surgery and Otolaryngology.
{People’s Pharmacy, Public Radio, July 24, 1999}

Other research shows that smokers have an increased risk of heart disease (including stroke, chest pain and palpitations), cancer, emphysema, fatigue, loss of vitamins and nutrients, premature aging, gastrointestinal disorders, osteoporosis, sinus congestion and throat irritation. According to medical reports, colds, flu and laryngitis last much longer for those who smoke.

Smoking causes an increased stress in the whole body even though there seems to be a lessening of stress when the body gets its ‘fix’ from the nicotine. Dr. Norman Shealy, a physician with the Shealy Institute for Comprehensive Pain and Health Care in Springfield, MO, tells us that smokers tend to consume other drugs and chemicals more frequently than nonsmokers, and have a lower threshold for pain, possibly because smoking stimulates adrenaline and also blocks one of the body’s natural pain relievers. Smokers are more vulnerable to headaches.

Driving skills are negatively affected for both the smoker and those who breathe the passive smoke. In his book, “The Risk of Passive Smoke,” Roy Shepard tells us that tobacco smoke impairs the ability to judge time intervals and muscle responsiveness, as well as vision and memory. Also affected is the learning ability and a variety of reasoning tasks employed during test taking.

Dr. Edward Koop, past Surgeon General, tells us in his book, “The Memoirs of an American Family Doctor,” that emphysema is found almost exclusively in smokers, and that 35% of all cancers are from smoking.

In her book, “The Scientific Case against Smoking,” Ruth Winter writes that the use of tobacco is one of the primary, but frequently unrecognized contributors to drug interactions, and there can be errors in reading the diagnostic tests of the smokers because of the differences of the normal blood levels of several elements. Drugs taken by the smoker can interact, causing them to be weaker, stronger, or not effective.

Dr. John Farquhar, in his book, “The Last Puff,” tells us that 95% of those who die from lung cancer are smokers. Lung cancer is killing more women than breast cancer, and cervical cancer is increased 8 to 17 times because of the increased concentration of nicotine on the cervical mucus; pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) is worsened as well.

One out of four adults smoke now as compared to 4 out of 10 in the 1940’s. (Energy Times magazine, Feb. 2000}

Military studies of those in basic training show that those who smoke are 50% more likely than nonsmokers to injure themselves with sprains and fractures.
{People’s Pharmacy, Public Radio, April 15, 2000 - Show # 309}

People who smoke are more likely to have sinusitis.
{Reuters Health, HealthCentral, Aug. 2000}

Cigarettes don't just damage the heart and lungs: they also interfere with the healing of bone and muscle injuries, and they lead to higher rates of complications after surgery.
{CBS HealthWatch, Aug. 2000}

In general, adolescents, whites and women are the groups most susceptible to becoming dependent on nicotine, even when using the same amount of nicotine as other groups. Women also smoked fewer cigarettes than men but have a higher rate of dependence.
{“Nicotine most likely to hook women, whites and young,” Reuters Health, healthcentral.com - Oct. 2000}

Smoking has been linked in medical studies to more than 25 diseases, including heart disease, strokes, respiratory illness and several forms of cancer.
{John Banzhaf, head of Action on Smoking, HealthCentral.com - May 2000}

Long-time smokers may face an increased risk of multiple sclerosis say Harvard researchers.
{“Smoking risk factor for multiple sclerosis,” HealthCentral.com - June 2001}

Even though studies show that kicking the habit has immediate health effects, it is clear there are permanent ones. Smokers, even those who quit years ago, have damage to their genes that can lead to cancer. There is molecular damage in the lungs of people who smoked only a pack a day for a year.
{Anderson Cancer Center, HealthCentral - Reuters News, June 2000}

While smoking is a well-known risk factor for heart disease and cancer, the habit can wreak havoc on bones and muscles, and smokers not only fare worse after certain surgical procedures, they are more likely to see them fail. Because smoking impedes the blood supply to the lower spine, it is also linked to chronic low back pain and degenerative disk disease.
{“Smokers found to fare worse after bone surgery,” presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, investigators were from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, Reuters Health, HealthCentral.com - 2001}

The information placed on low-nicotine brands is deceptive, and the filters which dilute the smoke when tested on the machine simulation do not appear to have the same effect as on humans. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute reports that people who smoke ‘light’ or ‘mild’ cigarettes inhale up to eight times as much tar and nicotine as printed on the label.
{“‘Mild’ cigarettes still pack nicotine punch,” Reuters Health, healthcentral.com - Jan. 2001}

Cigarette smoke transforms healthy saliva into a deadly cocktail that can accelerate cancer, according to new research in the British Journal of Cancer. Normally, saliva - which contains antioxidants - provides a protective buffer in the lining of the mouth for the enzymes that fight and neutralize harmful substances. New research shows that the chemicals in tobacco smoke destroy these enzymes, leaving a corrosive mix that damages the cells of the mouth, and can eventually turn these cells cancerous.
{“Cigarette smoke transforms healthy saliva into a deadly cocktail that can accelerate mouth cancer,“ Medical News Today, June 2004}

Statistics

Smokers in their thirties and forties are five times more likely to have a heart attack as nonsmokers of the same age, says WHO.
{Washington Post Health, June 26, 1997}

The addiction to smoking gives a 50% chance of killing the user: three times the risk of playing Russian roulette.
{ASH - Jan./Feb. 2000}

Tobacco is a mood-altering, addictive drug that kills 500,000 Americans (200 million worldwide) and costs $400 billion each year, according to “Smoking and Health Review,” (1992). We are told by the American Lung Association that tobacco contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 60 of which cause cancer. Some of the ‘killers’ are radioactivity, arsenic, ammonia, lead, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, cadmium, phenol, benzene and hydrogen cyanide (the ‘gas chamber’ gas that poisons the respiratory enzymes).

Although smoking is a constant and chronic irritant to the body tissues, it is also a high-priced addictive pleasure (and sometimes displeasure) that is costly, not only in dollars but lives as well. In the U.S. alone, cigarette smoking causes over 1,000 deaths a day or a half-a-million lives a year, is responsible for 25% of the cancer deaths, and 30 to 40% of coronary heart disease. Smoking decreases life expectancy for all age groups, and for those who must breathe the passive smoke. There are 4,000 chemicals (lead, cyanide, arsenic, etc.) in cigarette smoke and over 30 of them carcinogenic. The act of smoking desensitizes the smoker to outside stimuli, and it is estimated that a smoker costs an employer about $5,000 yearly.

Smoking has about a 50% chance of killing the smoker. This is three times the risk of playing a round of Russian roulette.
{“How YOU Pay The Price,” ASH Smoking and Health Review, Jan./Feb. 2000}

WHO estimates that smoking kills more than four million people a year, This figure may rise to 10 million per year by 2030 because of surging tobacco use in developing countries.
{AP, “WHO accuses tobacco companies,” HealthCentral.com - Aug. 2000}

At least 625,000 individuals in the Americas die each year from tobacco use, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Tobacco use seems to be on the rise in most countries in the Americas. What is needed is for governments to implement the recommendations of a report of the World Bank that was released last year. Ways to reduce tobacco use: increase taxes, restrict advertising, restricting smoking indoors, and strong, meaningful, and visible warnings on cigarette packages.
{“Tobacco kills 625,000 in the Americas each year.” Reuters Sept. 2000}

The cost of one pack of cigarettes is increased by $7 when medical and other costs are included in the price.
{Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, Report 2002;51: 300-302}

Comments by the Author

Smoking decreases physical fitness and vitality, and when you add the offensive breath and body odor that smokers exude, the chances of attracting the opposite sex is greatly diminished.

Those who take up smoking and become addicted can be doomed to have it be the center of their life:” Where are my cigarettes,” “I hope I have enough cigarettes so I won't run out,” “I wish I could stop this nasty habit,” “God, they taste so good,” “I am really going to try and smoke less today.”

Even if a smoker quits there are the months and years (for some individuals a lifetime) of energy focused on trying not to start again, and being driven by the urge to “smoke just one cigarette.”

Quitting smoking will be a minor task compared to the suffering and ill health that will result if you do not quit. If you haven't started, DON'T — if you now smoke, QUIT — and remember to stay away from passive smoke.

Links to Smoking-Related Topics