Health Effects of Smoking

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking harms nearly every organ of the body.  Smoking causes diseases such as heart disease and stroke, respiratory diseases, and cancer.  Women who smoke during pregnancy increase their chance of a hard pregnancy, low birth weight infants, stillbirth, and a higher rate of infant death.

 

Some of the health benefits to quitting are:

• heart disease risk is cut by half 1 year after quitting and is nearly the same as someone who
  never smoked 15 years after quitting;
• stroke risk is reduced to that of a person who never smoked after 5 to 15 years of not smoking;
• lung cancer risk drops by as much as half 10 years after quitting; and
• low birth weight baby risk drops to normal if you quit before pregnancy or during your trimester.

For more information on the health effects of smoking and what you can do, check out the resources below:

    

   Questions About Smoking, Tobacco and Health

   Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking

   Pregnant? Don't Smoke

   Smoking During Pregnancy

   Women and Tobacco