How tobacco* impacts your health

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, more than 9,300 people die each year from smoking. Nationally, tobacco kills more people than motor vehicle crashes, AIDS, homicides, and poisonings combined.

* All references to tobacco are commercial tobacco and not the sacred or traditional forms used by American Indian and other indigenous populations.

What are the health effects of tobacco?

Evidence has linked smoking to diseases of nearly all organs of the body.

The 2014 Surgeon General’s report concludes that smoking causes: lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or lung disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis and immune system weakness, increased risk for tuberculosis disease and death, ectopic (tubal) pregnancy and impaired fertility, erectile dysfunction, and age-related macular degeneration. Smoking can also trigger or make an asthma attack worse.

According to the National Cancer Institute, tobacco use causes many types of cancer, including cancer of the lung, larynx (voice box), mouth, esophagus, throat, bladder, kidney, liver, stomach, pancreas, colon and rectum, and cervix, as well as acute myeloid leukemia. People who use smokeless tobacco (snuff or chewing tobacco) have increased risks of cancers of the mouth, esophagus, and pancreas.

For data about co-occurring conditions with tobacco use, see the Smoking Co-morbidities section (pages 16-18) of the report Trends in Tobacco Use and Exposure: Data from the 2019 MA Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System PDF | Doc.

Information about E-cigarette/Vaping-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI)  

 In 2019 there was a multistate outbreak of severe lung disease associated with the use of vaping including but not limited to e-cigarettes.  The investigation did not identify any specific e-cigarette or vaping product or substance that is linked to all cases.  The only common factor that is linked to all cases is a history of e-cigarette use and vaping.  View national information from the CDC: Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with E-Cigarette Use, or Vaping.  

For clinicians: Report a case of e-cigarette/vaping associated lung injury.   

Nicotine addiction

Tobacco products, including e-cigarettes (vapes) contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance.

Adolescents are especially harmed by nicotine since their brains are still developing. Nicotine can produce structural and chemical changes in the developing brain and may lead to future alcohol and other drug addiction, panic attacks, and depression. Because of the way nicotine changes the brain, people who start smoking as adolescents smoke more and have a harder time quitting than people who start as adults.

The dangers of secondhand smoke

The 2006 Surgeon General’s Report on Secondhand Smoke concludes there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Opening a window, sitting in a separate area, or using air filters or a fan does not get rid of secondhand smoke.

Though they are not smokers themselves, an estimated 1,000 or more Massachusetts adults and children die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke.

For data about secondhand smoke exposure, see the Secondhand Smoke at Home section (pages 19-22) of the report Trends in Tobacco Use and Exposure: Data from the 2019 MA Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System PDF | Doc.

Resources

• Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2012
• Additional Reports of the Surgeon General on tobacco use and secondhand smoke
• American Lung Association
• American Cancer Society
• American Heart Association
• The National Institute on Drug Abuse