A: No, not if the smoker stops soon enough. In smokers who have stopped before the onset of irreversible heart and circulatory disease, the body begins to repair itself. Normally, after a year of non-smoking, the risk of a heart attack is halved; after ten to fifteen years of non-smoking, it's about the same as that of someone who has never smoked.
While smoking, the risk for lung cancer continues to rise. However, once a person stops smoking, the risk for lung cancer levels off and may even decrease. The cough of chronic bronchitis usually disappears when smoking is dropped but the progression of emphysema may continue.
A: Smokers of filter-tip cigarettes may have a slightly lower risk of lung cancer than those who smoke non-filter cigarettes; but they still have greatly increased risks of heart attack and emphysema.
A: Most are, but in smokers they are repetitive and cumulative -- a pack a day smoker inhales smoke about 102,000 times a year. If this continues year after year, the smoker's chance for contracting a serious smoking related disease is seriously increased.
A: Yes, cigarette smoking can become an addiction in the same way as the use of alcohol, tranquilizers, and other drugs. The essential features of addition include: compulsive use of a substance (ie., use that is no longer under the voluntary control of the user), tolerance (a need to increase the dose to achieve the same effect), and often physical dependence, as shown by withdrawl symptoms when use of the substance is stopped. Many cigarette smokers show all of these features.
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A: Theoretically, the low tar and nicotine brands that have taken over a large share of the Canadian cigarette market in the past few years may offer a slightly reduced risk of lung cancer. But only theoretically.
Several facts not widely known are:
1.The “light” effect is generally acheived through air dilution using ventilation holes near the filter.
2.Regular smokers who switch to those low tar and nicotine cigarettes tend to compensate by smoking more cigarettes, or by inhaling more deeply and longer, or by covering up the ventilation holes. Thus they do not really reduce the amount of tar and nicotine they inhale.
3.Smokers of these cigarettes have a greatly increased risk of heart attack because they get more carbon monoxide by inhaling more deeply and longer.
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If you smoke:
- avoid smoking around children, especially in the house or car;
- think about stopping smoking. For information on how to stop smoking, talk with your doctor, public health nurse, or the local lung association;
If someone else in your home smokes:
- ask them not to smoke near other members of the family;
- suggest they smoke outside the house, but not in the car;
A: Yes, these symptoms include changes in temperature, heart rate, digestion, muscle tone, and appetite. They also include irritability, anxiety, craving for tobacco, sleep disturbances, and other more 'subjective' symptoms. They generally diminish in seven days, but may not disappear entirely for weeks or months.
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