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Safe Smoking Doesn’t Exist: The Medical Facts Behind the Myth

May 03, 2025

Smoking is a major risk factor for many medical conditions and is responsible for over 480,000 deaths annually in the United States.

In fact, smoking is the single most preventable cause of death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when you smoke, it harms nearly every single part of the body.

Vaping may seem like a safer alternative to smoking, but it’s not. Research shows that using e-cigarettes is just as harmful as smoking traditional cigarettes.

The Health Effects of Smoking
We mentioned above that smoking contributes to nearly 500,000 deaths each year. That’s about one in every five deaths in the United States.

The potential impact is even greater—more than 16 million people in the United States have a disease that was caused by smoking.

Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including many that are known to contribute to cancer. Here’s how smoke affects the body:

  • Smoking damages the airways and small air sacs in the lungs.
  • Smoking can expose the lungs to chemicals and particles, often leading to a “smoker’s cough.”
  • Smoking damages the blood vessels responsible for feeding oxygenated blood to the heart, leading to heart attacks.
  • Smoking increases blood pressure.
  • Smoking makes blood more likely to clot.
  • Smoking lowers the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, also known as “good cholesterol,” in the blood.
  • Smoking can decrease a person’s risk of taste and smell.
  • Smoking can slow wound healing.
  • Smoking can lower bone density, increasing the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.
  • Smoking increases the risk of developing dementia.

All of those effects on the body add together to put smokers at a higher risk of many different medical conditions, including:

  • Cancer
  • Heart Disease
  • Stroke
  • COPD, Asthma
  • Type 2 Diabetes
  • Vascular Disease
  • Eye Diseases
  • Difficulties Conceiving (affecting both sexes)
  • Reproductive health problems
  • Birth Preterm
  • Rheumatoid arthritis

Smoking is a major risk factor for nearly every type of cancer. While most commonly associated with lung cancer, it also increases the risk for cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidney, liver, bladder, pancreas, stomach, colon, rectum, and female reproductive system.

Why Vaping Isn’t a Safer Form of Smoking
Many people turn to e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarettes, mistakenly believing that they’re a healthier option. While e-cigarettes don’t burn tobacco, they still expose smokers to many harmful chemicals and substances.

For one, when you’re vaping, you are not inhaling water vapor—you’re inhaling aerosolized oil, which is tiny particles all mixed together. Those particles can include lead, nickel, and benzene, the same compound that’s found in car exhaust.

Vaping also still exposes smokers to the harmful and addictive effects of nicotine. The aerosol in e-cigarettes actually often contains a higher level of nicotine than what’s found in traditional cigarettes.

E-cigarettes produce a number of dangerous chemicals, including:

  • Acrolein, which is a weed-killing herbicide associated with lung injury and disease
  • Aldehydes like formaldehyde, which can cause lung and heart disease
  • Propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, which are toxic to cells

Vaping is dangerous for both the person who is smoking and anyone who inhales the e-cigarette emissions. The Surgeon General noted that people can have secondhand exposure to chemicals such as nicotine, diacetyl, benzene, and heavy metals.

Those who use e-cigarettes have a higher risk of:

  • Heart attack
  • Heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • Impaired brain development among those younger than age 25
  • Lung disease, such as COPD and asthma
  • Lung injury
  • Nicotine addiction and certain mental health issues associated with addiction

One study found that the risk of heart disease was particularly noteworthy. According to a research study published in 2022, “Adults who regularly used electronic nicotine delivery devices, or e-cigarettes, displayed worrisome changes in heart and blood vessel function.”

Finding a Healthier Path Forward
If you smoke or use e-cigarettes, use this year’s World No Tobacco Day on May 31 as a time to plan out a strategy for quitting. Start with these tips:

Create a quit plan. Your plan should outline when you’ll quit, why you’ll quit, and how you’ll quit. The National Institutes of Health offers a website that steps you through the process of creating a quit plan.

Talk with your primary care provider about quitting. Your provider can offer tips and support, which may include over-the-counter or prescribed medications that can help you quit.

Find a support system. Talk with your loved ones about quitting, and ask for their support. You can also get help from trained quit coaches at the Quit Line by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW or by texting “QUITNOW” to 333888.

Build in healthy coping tools. Know what triggers you to smoke, and find healthier ways of handling those triggers. That may include going for a walk, meditating, chewing on almonds or sugar-free mints, or playing with a fidget toy or something similar.

If you’re experiencing symptoms of asthma or another lung condition, Dr. Robin Sharma and our expert team of pulmonologists at West Tennessee Healthcare are here to help. We provide comprehensive care to diagnose, treat, and manage a wide range of lung diseases—supporting you every step of the way.