The Effects of Cigarettes to Your Lungs and

Airways
Smoking causes significant changes in your lungs and airways. Some changes are sudden, lasting
just a short time. Colds and pneumonia are examples of this. Other, more chronic changes
happen slowly and can last a lifetime — like emphysema.

Here are some of the changes that happen in your lungs and airways when you smoke.

More mucus and infections

When you smoke, the cells that produce mucus in your lungs and airways grow in size and
number. As a result, the amount of mucus increases and thickens.

Your lungs cannot effectively clean out this excess mucus. So, the mucus stays in your airways,
clogs them, and makes you cough. This extra mucus is also prone to infection.

Smoking causes your lungs to age faster and hinders their natural defense mechanisms from
protecting you against infection.

Less airflow
Smoking inflames and irritates the lungs. Even one or two cigarettes cause irritation and
coughing.

Smoking also can destroy your lungs and lung tissue. This decreases the number of air spaces
and blood vessels in the lungs, resulting in less oxygen to critical parts of your body.

Fewer cilia

The lungs are lined in broom-like hairs called cilia, which clean the lungs.

A few seconds after you light a cigarette, cilia slow down in movement. Smoking just one
cigarette can slow the action of your cilia for several hours. Smoking also reduces the number of
cilia in your lungs, leaving fewer to properly clean the organ. 

Additional Health Risks Caused by Smoking

Circulation
Cigarette smoking can be very damaging to your circulation system. Because the tar in cigarettes
contain harmful chemicals, your blood stream is infected by them when you smoke. When these
poisons enter your blood:

 You are at an increased risk for experiencing blood clots, as your blood becomes thicker
 Your blood pressure and heart rate increase, causing your heart to work harder
 Your arteries become thinner, which reduces the amount of blood carrying oxygen as it
circulates to your organs

Brain

Smoking cigarettes is also quite harmful to your brain. Smokers are 50% more likely to have a
stroke, as opposed to non-smokers. With that, you are twice as likely to die from a stroke.

Stomach

Your digestive system, particularly your stomach, is greatly impacted by smoking cigarettes. The
esophagus can be weakened by smoking, allowing acid to travel in the wrong direction through
it. This process is better known as reflux.

Skin

Though few people are aware, smoking reduces the amount of oxygen your skin receives. In
other words, smoking causes your skin to age faster, by 10-20 years. Facial wrinkling is likely to
occur around your eyes and mouth.

How Quitting Smoking Can Benefit Your Health

When you smoke, you have a much greater chance of developing health problem.

Breathing-related health problems from smoking

When you smoke: When you quit:

 Chronic cough  Fast decrease in breathing-related
 More mucus symptoms, no matter how much or
 Shortness of breath how long you smoked
 Wheezing  Easier breathing within 72 hours
 Marked decrease in cough, mucus,
shortness of breath, and wheezing
within one month
 Less irritated and inflamed airways
 Cilia growth in one to nine months
 Lungs more able to handle mucus,
 self-clean, and fight infection

Asthma

Asthma is a chronic airway disease. People with asthma have periods of shortness of breath,
wheezing, chest tightness, and cough.

When you smoke: When you quit:

 Asthma symptoms are harder to  Symptoms of asthma decrease
control
 Many inhalers aren’t as effective

Colds and lung infections

When you smoke: When you quit:

 More colds and lung infections  Fewer colds and lung infections
 Worse colds and lung infections  Milder colds and lung infections

Flu and pneumonia

Smoking increases the number of deaths from flu and pneumonia. As fewer people smoke, the
death rate from flu and pneumonia has also declined.

When you smoke: When you quit:

 More and worsened bouts of the flu  50 percent less risk of pneumonia
 More chance of pneumonia within five years
 Poor response to flu vaccine  Fewer and milder bouts of the flu
 Better response to flu vaccine

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Cigarette smoking is a major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. COPD

blocks the flow of air into and out of your lungs. It’s a leading cause of death in the United
States.

When you smoke, your risk of death from COPD is 10 times greater than if you did not
smoke.
COPD includes two diseases: chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

When you have chronic bronchitis: When you quit smoking:

 You develop a long-lasting cough  Chronic bronchitis symptoms decrease
every year  Symptoms of chronic bronchitis may
 Your cough produces excess mucus disappear over time
that blocks airflow

When you have emphysema: When you quit smoking:

 It destroys your lung tissue over time
 Your lungs are less able to take in
fresh air and let out stale air
 Your lungs and airways produce
excess mucus that blocks airflow
 You get a small improvement from
emphysema symptoms right away
 The disease slows down
 You have a better chance of living
longer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Smoking causes 85
percent of lung cancer cases.

Smokers have a higher number of pre-cancer changes in their airways than non-smokers.

When you smoke: When you quit:

 Pre-cancer tissue can change to cancer
 Your risk of lung cancer and death are
20 times greater than that of a non-
smoker
 This risk increases the more you
smoke and the longer you smoke
 Pre-cancer tissue may return to normal
 Your risk of lung cancer decreases
within five years
 Your risk of lung cancer keeps
decreasing over time

How Secondhand Smoke Affects Your Lungs

When people smoke, they pollute the air around them. This secondhand smoke comes from two
sources:

1. The burning end of the cigarette

2. The smoker when he or she exhales smoke

Researchers have studied adult non-smokers who breathe cigarette smoke in the workplace, and
results show these adults have impaired lungs.
When you breathe second-hand smoke, you can have health problems such as:

 Wheezing
 Chronic cough
 Increased mucus
 Shortness of breath
 Trouble controlling asthma
 More lung infections and pneumonia
 Lung cancer

In the United States each year, about 3,000 people die from lung cancer caused by
secondhand smoke.

Stay away from secondhand smoke.