Smoking causes death.

The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States.
More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.
Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.
An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.

Effects causally associated:

(1997 California EPA report on ETS: Health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.)

Death. Smoking can lead to death from lung cancer and emphysema

Smoking and Increased Health Risks

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—

coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,
stroke by 2 to 4 times,
men developing lung cancer by 23 times,
women developing lung cancer by 13 times, and
dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease

Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.
Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).
Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen).

Lung cancer
Nasal sinus cancer
Heart disease mortality
Acute and chronic coronary heart disease morbidity
Fetal growth: low birthweight or small for gestational age
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Acute lower respiratory tract infections in children (e.g. bronchitis and pneumonia)
Asthma induction and exacerbation in children
Chronic respiratory symptoms in children
Eye and nasal irritation in children
Middle ear infections in children

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease

Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.
Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene).
Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen).

Smoking and Respiratory Disease

Smoking causes lung cancer.
Smoking causes lung diseases (e.g., emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i.e., small air sacs) of the lungs.

Smoking impacts appearance

If you smoke, you already know you need to quit. It’s bad for your heart, lungs, brain, and even your sex life.

But let’s face it: You’d have kicked the habit yesterday if smoking’s ill effects were a bit more obvious. What if each cigarette created a black pockmark on your face, for instance?
Well, smoking does damage your looks. Read on to discover 15 ways smoking is ruining your appearance.

Smoking during pregnancy

Every cigarette you smoke during your pregnancy is a risk for your growing fetus. Imagine passing on dangerous chemicals that tighten blood vessels and deprive the baby of essential food and oxygen. A mom-to-be that smokes a pack a day takes off nearly half a pound from the baby's birth weight. Smoking can adversely affect a woman's fertility.

Women who smoke are more likely to have problems conceiving. Smokers have lower fertility levels and children born to mothers who smoked have less chance of becoming a parent themselves. Smoking also reduces the chances of IVF succeeding. Smoking adversely affects the hormone production and the transportation of the egg through the fallopian tubes. Men who smoke tend to have a lower sperm count with lower motility

Effects of smoking during pregnancy

Babies of mothers who quit smoking early during pregnancy do as well as non-smoking mothers.
Encourage a smoking mom-to-be to quit by not smoking around her.
Passive smoking or second-hand smoke can also be dangerous for fetuses.
Babies born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy are at greater risk for developing ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Shortage of oxygen can have devastating effects on a baby's growth and development.
Smoking during pregnancy doubles the chances that a baby will be born prematurely or weigh less than 5½ pounds at birth.
Smoking during pregnancy also more than doubles the risk of stillbirth.

Risk of smoking during pregnancy

The risk of smoking during pregnancy can result in placental complications - placenta previa, placental abruption. These problems can result in heavy bleeding during pregnancy and thereby cause complications to mother and child. It may even cause stillbirth. PROM or premature rupture of membranes is often noticed among those who smoke during pregnancy.

If it occurs before 37 weeks of gestation, it results in a premature birth. Another risk of smoking during pregnancy is ectopic pregnancy. Smoking during pregnancy also increases the risk of stillbirth, miscarriage and severe vaginal bleeding. An adverse effect of smoking during pregnancy is the chances of delivering a low birth weight baby.

This can happen due to slow fetal growth. . A smaller baby is more likely to become stressed during birth. Smoking during pregnancy reduces the food and oxygen that passes from the placenta to the fetus. The nicotine in cigarettes may cause constrictions in the blood vessels of the umbilical cord and uterus, thereby decreasing the amount of oxygen available to the fetus.

Nicotine also may reduce the amount of blood in the fetal cardiovascular system. A baby of a woman who smokes weighs on average 170 to 200 grams lighter. The more a woman smokes the greater the weight reduction. Undersized babies also have underdeveloped bodies, lungs that may not be strong enough to work on their own, impaired brain development and possible future addiction for the child too.

Risks of smoking during pregnancy can include likelihood of birth defects such as cleft lip or chronic disabilities such as celebral palsy and mental retardation. There are chances of other problems in later years such as respiratory illnesses (asthma, ear infections, tonsillitis), behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Babies exposed to cigarette smoke are at increased risk from SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The risk of smoking during and after pregnancy is more so for nursing mothers who might pass harmful chemicals to the baby. The milk supply may be reduced too. Take this perfect opportunity to quit smoking, its good for you and good for your baby! You will find yourself with improved health and energy levels - to see you and your baby to a healthy birth.

Skin cancer

Smoking is a leading cause of cancer, including lung, throat, mouth, and esophageal cancer, so it should be no surprise that cigarettes can also increase your risk of skin cancer.

In fact, according to a 2001 study, smokers are three times as likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common type of skin cancer, than nonsmokers.

Thinner hair

As if the wrinkly skin wasn’t enough, smoking hurts your hair too. Experts think the toxic chemicals in smoke can damage the DNA in hair follicles and generate cell-damaging free radicals as well.

The end result? Smokers have thinner hair that tends to go gray sooner than nonsmokers. That is, if they have any hair at all.

Men who smoke are about twice as likely to lose their hair as nonsmokers, after taking into account factors that increase the risk of baldness, such as aging and genetics, according to a 2007 study in Taiwan.

Warts

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, smokers are more susceptible to infection with human papillomavirus, a large family of viruses that can cause warts—including genital warts.

While genital warts are caused by sexually transmitted types of HPV, smoking is also a risk factor. Even taking the number of sex partners into account, women who smoke are nearly four times as likely to have genital warts as nonsmokers, according to one study.