Smoking tobacco causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.
Cigarette smoking causes chronic diseases that appear at older ages, such as lung cancer, as well as adverse health effects that occur in the short run. The immediate and short-term adverse health effects of cigarette smoking are less likely to be directly fatal than the long-term health effects.
Cigarette contains free radicals and other oxidants in abundance. A single puff of a cigarette exposes the smoker to more than 10 free radicals in the gas phase and additional radicals and oxidants in the tar phase.
Cigarette smoking clearly generates substantial quantities of oxidative stress, as indicated by a consistent body of evidence indicating that cigarette smoking significantly increases biomarkers of oxidative damage to proteins, DNA, and lipids. Cigarette smokers experience measurable and immediate oxidative damage. This oxidative damage, experienced over long periods of time, is one pathway contributing to smoking-caused disease and death.
