Cancer
Owing to the large number of chemicals present in cigarette smoke,
smoking can lead to cancer in various parts of the body.
Amongst the most commonly discussed forms of cancer that occurs due to
smoking is lung cancer. There is a considerable ‘dose response’
relationship when it comes to smoking and lung cancer, wherein the more
you smoke, the more are the probabilities of your getting lung cancer.
90% of lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of lung cancer deaths in women
are attributed to smoking.
Oral cancer (mouth cancer) also sees smoking as a primary factor (along
with other forms of tobacco intake). If you have oral cancer, there is a
possibility that it will spread further down the oral cavity to the
larynx and the oesophagus, and continuing smoking would only hasten the
process.
Bladder cancer also sees a considerable effect of smoking, wherein about
half of all the bladder cancer related death in men, and around 30% in
women, are attributed to smoking. This is because some of the
carcinogens that enter your body in the form of cigarette smoke enter
your blood. They are then filtered by your kidney, and get concentrated
in the urine. Once in the urine, these chemicals work their way in
damaging the inside lining of your bladder. This increases the
probability of your getting bladder cancer.
A new study has also shown that smoking increases the chances of your
getting cancer of the pancreas (pancreatic cancer). The study also went
on to show that people who smoked lesser for a long period were more
vulnerable to getting pancreatic cancer than people who smoked more but
for a shorter duration.
Kidney cancer is another form of cancer that you risk each time you
light up, as a smoking history is one of the reasons for kidney cancer.
Renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of cancer that affects the
kidney, affects smokers way more than non-smokers (almost two times
more). While your kidneys handle the waste filtration of your body (as
urine), chemicals such as tar and
nicotine can damage the kidney and
impede this process. Besides, the carcinogens can also damage your
kidney tissue.
The possibility of your getting stomach cancer go up around two times if
you are a smoker, and smoking also increases the risk of your getting
cervical cancer by around 60%. Recent data has shown that close to half
of Australia’s indigenous women smoke, putting a large section of the
population at risk of contracting this otherwise preventable form of
cancer. |
