Health risks of smoking

Along with the pleasures of smoking there are real risks of serious diseases such as lung cancer, respiratory disease and heart disease, and for many people, smoking is difficult to quit.
Health Authorities affirm that smoking is cause of various grave and fatal diseases like pulmonary cancer, respiratory and cornoray diseases.

Studies

The health risks of smoking are derived from epidemiology. Epidemiology is a statistically based science, dealing with risks among large groups of people, rather than with individuals. Through questionnaires and observations of people, epidemiological studies can identify the incidence of disease in a given group, such as smokers, and compare it with the incidence in another group, such as non-smokers.

Over many years, epidemiological studies have consistently reported a much higher incidence of certain diseases among smokers compared with non-smokers. The studies also report that the risks are reduced after quitting and that quitting earlier has by far the best effect on reducing risks.

Traditionally, epidemiology has been used to identify associations that point to possible causes of a disease, providing direction for thorough laboratory investigations. With smoking, the many laboratory investigations over the years have proved more problematic, and science has not to date been able to identify biological mechanisms which can explain with certainty the statistical findings linking smoking and certain diseases, nor has science to date been able to clarify the role of particular smoke constituents in these disease processes.

This means that science is still to determine which smokers will get a smoking related disease and which will not. Nor can science tell whether any individual became ill solely because they smoked. This is, in part, because all the diseases that have been associated with smoking also occur in life-long non-smokers.

British American Tobacco does not point out these scientific limitations to cast doubt that smoking is a cause of serious disease. An important point is that the lack of complete understanding about the biological aspects of the disease mechanisms, and the role of particular smoke constituents, creates uncertainty for efforts to design less harmful cigarettes.

What people should consider about the risks:

• Smoking is an important risk of factor of various serious and fatal diseases.
• The health risks in groups vary by the amount smoked, being highest in those that smoke for more years and smoke more cigarettes per day.
• The risks reduce in groups of people who quit smoking, and the reductions increase from quitting earlier.
• Experts advise no smoking during pregnancy.
• The only way to be certain of avoiding the risks of smoking is not to smoke.

Smoking & Pregnancy

Public health authorities advise that pregnant women should not smoke, and have publicised this widely. Many statistical studies have reported a link between lower birth weight in babies and mothers who smoke throughout pregnancy. Some statistical studies have reported, amongst other factors, links between smoking in pregnancy and infant mortality, premature birth, miscarriage and stillbirth.

Excerpted from www.bat.com