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Smoking

Home > Services & Info > Info Hub > Your Lifestyle & Cancer > Smoking

Smoking is one of the most well-known things we do that can cause cancer. The chemicals inhaled from the smoke of cigarettes/cigars/pipes etc, have the potential to cause DNA damage, which increases the likelihood of developing serious health conditions, such as cancer.

Cigarettes

Cigarettes are found to contain over 4000 chemicals, 70 of which are cancer causing, including:

Tar – the sticky substance found in the lungs

Formaldehyde – used to preserve dead bodies

Ammonia – a component of toilet cleaner

Smoking causes damage to teeth and skin. It badly effects the lungs resulting in coughs, colds, wheezing and asthma. Smoking can also be the cause of fatal diseases such as pneumonia, emphysema and lung cancer.

Cigarettes contain nicotine which is highly addictive. The nicotine changes the levels of chemicals in your brain, your mood and your concentration levels. This is known as the nicotine rush and many smokers become dependent on it. Making it very hard to quit!

Benefits of quitting include:

reduced risk of some cancers including lung cancer.

Saves Money.

Quitting at the age of 50 halves your chances of developing smoking related diseases, while quitting at 30 almost eliminates your risk. The sooner you quit the better!

Want to Quit? Click here

E-cigarettes/Vaping

Can they increase the risk of cancer? Are they better then smoking cigarettes?

We are not sure of the long-term effects and outcomes of using e-cigarettes/vaping because there isn’t enough long term-research on their effects yet.

 

Some people use them to help them stop smoking, which is better than continuing to smoke, but it’s important to know that e-cigarettes/vape are not licenced as stop smoking medications!

 

What we do know is that they still contain nicotine so they are still addictive and they still contain many other chemicals. Research carried out so far has found that e-cigarette vapor can increase harmful bacteria in the lungs, which is associated with, lung disease, COPD and asthma.

You can read more on this research here

For more info on e-cigarettes click here