New US report links more diseases, health problems to smoking

Smoking - known to cause lung cancer and heart disease - can even trigger diabetes, erectile dysfunction, arthritis, blindness and liver cancer, according to a new US report released today which also found that modern cigarettes are more dangerous than ever.
The report by the acting US surgeon general, Dr Boris D Lushniak, significantly expands the list of smoking-caused diseases.
According to the report, smoking causes diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis and immune system weakness, increased risk for tuberculosis disease and death, impaired fertility, cleft lip and cleft palates in babies of women who smoke during early pregnancy, erectile dysfunction, and age-related macular degeneration.

Secondhand smoke exposure is now known to cause strokes in nonsmokers, it added.
Lushniak said that even though today's smokers smoke fewer cigarettes than those 50 years ago, they are at higher risk of developing lung cancer.
Changes in the design and composition of cigarettes since the 1950s have increased the risk of adenocarcinoma of the lung, the most common type of lung cancer.

"Evidence suggests that ventilated filters may have contributed to higher risks of lung cancer by enabling smokers to inhale more vigorously, thereby drawing carcinogens contained in cigarette smoke more deeply into lung tissue," he said.
"At least 70 of the chemicals in cigarette smoke are known carcinogens. Levels of some of these chemicals have increased as manufacturing processes have changed," he added.

Women's disease risks from smoking have risen sharply over the last 50 years and are now equal to men's for lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiovascular diseases. The number of women dying from COPD now exceeds the number of men, according to the report.
Since the first US Surgeon General's report on smoking and health was published 50 years ago, more than 20 million Americans have died because of smoking.