How Smoking Kills

- [Woman] This video is sponsored

by the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative.

Lung cancer is the leading cause

of cancer related death in the world.

But lung cancer screening can save lives.

Click the link below to learn more.

Every time you smoke a cigarette

toxic gases pass into your lungs,

then into your bloodstream.

Where they spread to every organ in your body.

A cigarette is made using the tobacco leaf

which contains nicotine and a variety of other compounds.

As the tobacco and compounds burn,

they release thousands of dangerous chemicals,

including over 40 known to cause cancer.

Cigarette smoke contains the poisonous gases,

carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide,

as well as trace amounts

of cancer causing radioactive particles.

All forms of tobacco are dangerous,

including cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco,

such as chewing tobacco and snuff.

Nicotine is an addictive chemical in tobacco.

After you inhale tobacco smoke,

nicotine flows through the bloodstream to your brain,

where it induces a pleasurable feeling.

When you repeatedly expose your brain to nicotine

it becomes desensitized.

Making you crave more and more nicotine just to feel normal.

Smoking causes death.

People who smoke typically die

at an earlier age than non-smokers.

In fact, one of every five deaths in the United States

is linked to cigarette smoking.

If you smoke your risk of major health problems

increases dramatically including heart disease,

heart attack, stroke, lung cancer,

and death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Smoking causes cardiovascular disease.

When nicotine flows through your adrenal glands,

it stimulates the release of epinephrine.

A hormone that raises your blood pressure.

In addition, nicotine and carbon monoxide

can damage the lining of the inner walls in your arteries.

Fatty deposits called plaque

can build up at these injury sites

and become large enough to narrow the arteries

and severely reduce blood flow

resulting in a condition called atherosclerosis.

In coronary artery disease,

atherosclerosis narrows the arteries that supply the heart

which reduces the supply of oxygen to your heart muscle,

increasing your risk for a heart attack.

Smoking also raises your risk for blood clots

because it causes platelets in your blood to clump together.

Smoking increases your risk for peripheral vascular disease,

in which atherosclerotic plaques

block the large arteries in your arms and legs.

Smoking can also cause an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Which is a swelling or weakening of your aorta

where it runs through your abdomen.

Smoking damages two main parts of your lungs.

Your airways also called bronchial tubes

and small air sacs called alveoli.

With each breath,

air travels down your windpipe called the trachea

and enters your lungs through your bronchial tubes.

Air then moves into thousands of tiny alveoli.

Where oxygen from the air moves into your bloodstream

and the waste product carbon dioxide

moves out of your bloodstream.

Tiny hair-like projections called cilia

line bronchial tubes

and sweep harmful substances out of your lungs.

Cigarette smoke irritates the lining

of your bronchial tubes,

causing them to swell and make mucus.

Cigarette smoke also slows the movement of your cilia

causing some of the smoke and mucus to stay in your lungs.

While you are sleeping some of the cilia recover

and start pushing more pollutants

and mucus out of your lungs.

When you wake up your body attempts to expel this material

by coughing repeatedly.

A condition known as smoker's cough.

Over time, chronic bronchitis develops

as your cilia stop working.

Your airways become clogged with scars and mucus

and breathing becomes difficult.

Your lungs are now more vulnerable to further disease.

Cigarette smoke also damages your alveoli,

making it harder for oxygen and carbon dioxide

to exchange with your blood.

Over time so little oxygen can reach your blood

that you may develop emphysema.

A condition in which you must gasp for every breath

and wear an oxygen tube under your nose

in order to breathe.

Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are collectively called

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD.

COPD is a gradual loss of the ability to breathe

for which there is no cure.

Cigarette smoke contains

at least 40 cancer causing substances called carcinogens,

including cyanide, formaldehyde, benzene and ammonia.

In your body, healthy cells grow,

make new cells, then die.

Genetic material inside each cell called DNA

directs this process.

If you smoke, toxic chemicals

can damage the DNA in your healthy cells.

As a result, your damaged cells

create new unhealthy cells.

Which grow out of control

and may spread to other parts of your body.

The most common cancer in the world is lung cancer,

with over a million new cases diagnosed every year.

Harmful chemicals in cigarettes

can cause cancer in other parts of your body,

such as in the blood and bone marrow,

mouth, larynx, throat, esophagus, stomach,

pancreas, kidney, bladder, uterus and cervix.

Smoking can cause infertility in both men and women.

If a woman is pregnant and smokes during pregnancy,

she exposes her baby to the cigarette's poisonous chemicals

causing a greater risk of low birth weight,

miscarriage, preterm delivery, stillbirth,

infant death and sudden infant death syndrome.

Smoking is also dangerous if a mother is breastfeeding.

Nicotine passes to the baby through breast milk

and can cause restlessness, rapid heartbeat,

vomiting, interrupted sleep or diarrhea.

Other health effects of smoking

include low bone density

and increased risk for hip fracture among women,

gum disease often leading to tooth loss and surgery,

immune system dysfunction and delayed wound healing

and sexual impotence in men.