Cigarette smoking causes heart disease, several kinds of cancer (lung, larynx, esophagus, pharynx, mouth, and bladder), and chronic lung disease.

• Cigarette smoking also contributes to cancer of the pancreas, kidney, and cervix.

• Smoking contributes to peripheral arterial disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; emphysema and peptic ulcers

• Researchers have identified more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke of which at least 43 cause cancer in humans and animals.

• The dark, sticky residue of tar and other substances coats clothing, hair and furniture giving them that characteristic smoker’s odor. Tar settles in smokers’ air passages.

• Smokers cough more but are less effective because the tar interferes with the cilia, hair-like structures that normally sweep foreign particles out of the lungs and bronchial tubes. With chronic bombardment the lung tissue beneath the cilia becomes susceptible, cells are altered, and the door is opened to cancer and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).