Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco

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Health risks

There are many, many reasons to quit using tobacco. Knowing these serious health risks can sometimes help motivate you to quit. When used over a long period, tobacco and its various chemical components (like tar, nicotine, and thousands of others) can increase your risk of:

• Coronary artery disease including angina, and heart attacks
• High blood pressure, blood clots, aneurysms, and strokes
• Cancer (especially in the lung, mouth, larynx, esophagus, bladder, kidney, pancreas, and cervix)
• Chronic lung disease -- emphysema, chronic bronchitis
• Pregnancy related problems including miscarriage, premature labor, low birth weight, and risk for SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)
• Delayed wound healing
• Tooth and gum diseases; decreased senses of taste and smell

If you use smokeless tobacco, you have many of these same risks, including a 50 times greater risk for oral cancer with long-term use.

Even if you don't smoke yourself, but you are exposed regularly to secondhand smoke, you have a higher risk of:

• Lung cancer
• In infants and children, more respiratory infections (such as bronchitis and pneumonia), asthma, and poor lung function as the lungs mature
• Sudden and severe reactions, including eye, nose, throat, and lower respiratory tract symptoms