How can cigarette smoke have such a wide variety of health effects?
It can because cigarette smoke is composed of a large number of different substances that affect many parts of the body. Cigarette “tar” — a short name for the condensed solid particles in smoke — contains about 4,000 known chemicals, including poisons and cancer-causing substances. 23. Why don’t all cigarette smokers get lung cancer? An estimated 10% to 15% of long-term smokers do die of lung cancer. Many more die early due to heart attacks. People react differently to all substances for a variety of reasons, including genetic and biological make-up. Since cigarette smoke contains so many thousands of chemicals, it’s no wonder that every smoker doesn’t contract the same disease. But overall the fact is inescapable: cigarette smokers die younger than non-smokers. That is why many life insurance companies are now reducing life insurance policy premiums for non-smokers. According to the World Health Organization, “Death rates are uniformly higher among smokers that among non-smokers in
