How does smoking tobacco cause cancer? Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of cancer worldwide, causing more than 7 million deaths1 each year. These deaths could be prevented if people did not smoke.
Tobacco smoke contains many known carcinogens – substances that cause cancer. Many people know that smoking causes lung cancer, but it can also cause many other types, including:
Passive smoking (being exposed to someone else’s tobacco smoke) also increases the risk of lung cancer, and is particularly dangerous for children.
All forms of tobacco cause cancer regardless of whether they are smoked (such as pipes, cigars, ‘light’ cigarettes, roll-ups and shishas), chewed, sucked or inhaled (such as smokeless tobacco and betel quid).
A recent report from Public Health England2 showed that using e-cigarettes (‘vaping’) is much less harmful to health than smoking tobacco. This is because e-cigarettes do not contain the main cancer-causing substance that is in regular cigarettes: tobacco. However, the long-term health impact of e-cigarettes is yet to be investigated.
Not smoking or giving up smoking is the best way to reduce your own cancer risk and the risk to those around you, followed by maintaining a healthy weight through eating a healthy diet and keeping active.
There’s lots of free advice and support available to help with giving up smoking, including from the NHS.
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