Tobacco Use: Revealing The Truth Of The Popular Habit

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. An estimated 46 million U.S. adults (age 18 and over) currently use at least one tobacco product with 8.3 million reportedly using two or more tobacco products.¹ It is a well-known fact that tobacco products, including cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars, and pipes, are unhealthy. However, many do not understand the complexity of the damage that is caused by tobacco products. In this article, we reveal the truth of the popular habit that is tobacco use.

Cigarettes

Annually, close to half a million Americans die prematurely due to smoking or secondhand smoke exposure. Additionally, about 16 million individuals suffer from severe health conditions attributed to smoking². Smoking-related illnesses come with a hefty price tag with over $225 billion spent in the United States annually on medical care for smokers.

It is well known that smoking causes lung cancer. Nine out of ten people with lung cancer are either current or former smokers. What is less known is that smoking can cause cancer in almost every organ of the body, including but not limited to, the liver, stomach, kidneys, bladder, and pancreas. Cigarettes are made up of approximately 600 ingredients. When burned those 600 ingredients turn into over 7,000 chemicals 69 of which are known to cause cancer. The other 6,931 chemicals have not been thoroughly studied and their side effects are widely unknown.

When you smoke a cigarette you are inhaling chemicals such as ammonia, arsenic, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and lead.³ These chemicals enter the bloodstream and are carried throughout the entire body. Once the chemicals are in your blood they begin to alter your DNA. DNA controls how the body makes new cells and manages the functionality of those cells. Damaged DNA creates mutated cells that turn into cancer throughout the body.

Along with cancer, smoking also causes heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema and chronic bronchitis, age-related macular degeneration leading to blindness, infertility, restricted blood flow, especially to the legs, feet, and genitalia leading to erectile dysfunction in men.

Smokeless Tobacco

The most commonly used types of smokeless tobacco (SLT) are moist snuff (typically called dip tobacco), chew, and snus (powdered tobacco sold in pouches). In the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, an estimated 1.7 million people died early due to health conditions related to smokeless tobacco⁴. Approximately 62,300 SLT users died due to cancers of the mouth, pharynx, and esophagus and 204,300 died due to ischaemic heart disease resulting from smokeless tobacco.

SLT products contain over 30 carcinogens including tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA), arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, nickel, chromium, nitrite, and nitrate. Like the chemicals in cigarettes, these chemicals are absorbed directly into the bloodstream causing damage to the DNA as they travel throughout the body. These chemicals can lead to numerous types of cancers, heart disease, and stroke as they damage body cells and blood vessels. Cancer of the vocal cords is common in SLT users potentially leading to a permanent inability to speak verbally.

SLT use can also lead to several issues within the mouth. Most long-term SLT users will have permanent stains on their teeth. SLT can also cause mouth sores, gingivitis, periodontitis, tooth loss, and cavities due to the sugar in SLT.

Cigars

Cigars are a little complicated in terms of their hazards to health and the amount of research available. A 2019 study examined four different years and found approximately 200,000 cases of cancer and cardiovascular events related strictly to cigar use only.⁵ It is estimated that cigar use causes 9,000 deaths per year.

The reason cigar smoking is complicated is because of the way cigars are smoked and the higher levels of toxic chemicals. Unlike cigarette smokers, cigar smokers do not inhale. This results in fewer toxins reaching the lungs and entering the bloodstream. Cigars, however, contain a higher concentration of cancer-causing agents, higher levels of tar than cigarettes, and more toxins that enter the mouth due to the non-porous cigar wrapping.

The result is fewer cases of lung cancer, lung disease, and cardiovascular complications in cigar smokers compared to cigarette smokers. However, cigar smoking can still lead to diseases of the lips, mouth, tongue, throat, and larynx. Cigar smokers are at a much higher rate of health complications than people who do not smoke cigars.

The Truth Of The Popular Habit

The truth is no amount of tobacco use, regardless of the way it is used, is healthy. Although we did not go over every method in which tobacco is consumed, they all present serious health risks. Tobacco in any form contains thousands of chemicals that are found in items such as nail polish remover, rat poison, pesticides, and even nuclear weapons. Needless to say, once these chemicals enter the body they begin doing damage. Smoking in particular not only puts the smoker at risk but also greatly increases cancer and other major health complications in anyone exposed to second-hand smoke.

The damages caused by tobacco use make the habit, simply not worth the risk. We understand and fully recognize that tobacco use is an extremely hard habit to quit. Because of its general acceptance in society (compared to other addictions), ease of access, and popularity, it is one of the hardest habits to break. We have provided a list of resources to help you through your journey of quitting tobacco. You can also talk to your doctor about medications that can assist with breaking the addiction.

Remember that you are not alone in this journey, your team at Human Health Co, your friends and family, coworkers, and even complete strangers are all rooting for you and are here to support you as you work towards a tobacco-free life. We know you can do this!

Resources to Help You Quit Tobacco

• American Lung Association – https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/join-freedom-from-smoking
• CDC – https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/quit-smoking/index.html
• American Cancer Association – https://quitnow.net/
• National Cancer Institute – https://smokefree.gov/
• BeTobaccoFree – https://betobaccofree.hhs.gov/tools-quit-now
• Nicotine Anonymous Support Group – https://www.nicotine-anonymous.org/
• Become an Ex – https://www.becomeanex.org/
• National Cancer Institute – “QuitPal” Phone App
• World Health Organization – Quit Tobacco Phone App

Supporting Research

1. Cornelius, M. E., Loretan, C. G., Jamal, A., Davis Lynn, B. C., Mayer, M., Alcantara, I. C., & Neff, L. (2023, May 5). Tobacco product use among adults – United States, 2021. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc10168602/
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2. Smoking and Tobacco Use Data and Statistics. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, November 2). https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/index.htm ↩︎
3. What’s in a cigarette? American Lung Association. (2023, May 31). https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/whats-in-a-cigarette#:~:text=There%20are %20approximately%20600%20ingredients,cancer%2C%20and%20many%20are%20toxic.
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4. Siddiqi, K., Shah, S., Abbas, S. M., Vidyasagaran, A., Jawad, M., Dogar, O., & Sheikh, A. (2015, August 17). Global burden of disease due to smokeless tobacco consumption in adults: Analysis of data from 113 countries – BMC medicine. BioMed Central. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-015-0424-2 ↩︎
5. Rostron BL, Corey CG, Gindi RM. Cigar smoking prevalence and morbidity among US adults, 2000-2015. Prev Med Rep. 2019 Feb 11;14:100821. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.100821. PMID: 30815336; PMCID: PMC6378850. ↩︎