Smoking and Health

Smoking causes many serious diseases including cardiovascular disease (heart disease), lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (emphysema, chronic bronchitis). Smokers are far more likely to become sick with one of these diseases than non-smokers. Smoking is also addictive and can be extremely difficult to stop. These are the views of every leading medical and scientific organization around the world. And they are the views of Philip Morris International.

Cardiovascular Disease (Heart Disease):

  • The World Health Organization External reference (WHO) states on its website, “Tobacco use is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. If fewer people smoked, there would be fewer heart attacks and strokes.” 
  • The American Heart Association External reference states on its website, “Smoking increases blood pressure, decreases exercise tolerance, and increases the tendency for blood to clot.”
  • The British Heart Foundation External reference states on its website, “The carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke reduces the amount of oxygen that the blood can carry to your heart and body.”

Lung Cancer and Other Cancers:

  • WHO External reference  states on its website, “Tobacco's role in increasing the chance of lung cancer is one of the most widely known of tobacco's harmful effects on human health. What many people, smokers and non-smokers alike, may not know is that tobacco use increases risks of cancer at many sites in the body in addition to the lungs.” 
  • WHO External reference  also states, “On average, smokers increase their risk of lung cancer between 5 and 10-fold…”

Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (Emphysema, Chronic Bronchitis):

  • WHO External reference  states on its website, “Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) encompasses two groups of lung disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema...there is a dramatic synergy with smoking such that smokers have higher COPD prevalence and mortality.” 

Public health authorities have concluded that smoking causes many other diseases. 

For more detailed information from other public health authorities on tobacco, cigarette smoking, and disease, please refer to the links below.

International Agency for Research on Cancer External reference  

World Health Organization  External reference

US Surgeon General Reports External reference