Smoking signals shorter lives than ever known
More than half a century after the link between smoking and cancer was first proven, scientists continue to add to the pile of reasons why inhaling burning plant matter is a poor decision for health.
New kinds of liver and colon cancer, blindness, diabetes, and erectile dysfunction are all negative health effects that await many smokers, a major new US government report says.
Prominent health officials from around the United States have announced new findings on the health consequences of smoking, which remains one of the world’s leading causes of premature death.
“Tobacco is even worse than we knew it was,” said Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden.
Smoking is a key cause of 13 different cancers, diabetes, age-related macular degeneration, the report says.
The archaic habit has now been linked to tuberculosis, erectile dysfunction, facial clefts in babies, ectopic pregnancy, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation, impaired immune function, and a worsened the outlook for cancer patients and survivors.
“How cigarettes are made and the chemicals they contain have changed over the years, and some of those changes may be a factor in higher lung cancer risks,” Acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak said.
“Enough is enough,” he said.
Smoking is on the decrease at the moment in Australia, with figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics saying 20 per cent of males and 16 per cent of females (aged 18 years and over) smoked in 2011-12, compared to 27 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women in 2001.
The number of smokers worldwide has risen from 721 million in 1980 to 967 million in 2012, connected to rapid population growth and the ever-increasing popularity of cigarettes in some developing nations.