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What Effect Does Smoking Cigarettes Have on a Person's Lungs?

Cigarette smoking is damaging to the lungs. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), nicotine is the most frequently used addictive drug. Further, 96 percent of lung cancer cases in America derive from cigarette smoking.

  1. Ingredients

    • Cigarette smoke is a blend of chemicals produced from burning tobacco and its components. It contains tar, cyanide, benzene, formaldehyde, wood alcohol, acetylene, ammonia and the poison gases carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide.

    Effects

    • According to the American Cancer Society, lung damage starts early in smokers; the lungs of a cigarette smoker function at a lower level than those of nonsmokers, and this becomes worse as he keeps smoking. Smoking can result in various lung diseases in addition to lung cancer.

    Chronic Bronchitis

    • When your lungs start to produce more mucus on a more frequent basis, your airways get swollen and you develop a chronic cough--chronic bronchitis--which can result in not only discomfort but serious infections.

    Emphysema

    • Emphysema is a lung disease that gradually squashes the smoker's ability to breathe. In the later stages of emphysema, the patient can breathe comfortably only if she wears an oxygen tube beneath her nose.

    COPD

    • Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) results in the patient always gasping for breath and feels as if he is drowning. In its later stages, it is one of the most discomfiting of all medical issues.

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