Who is safe to smoke?
The simple answer is no-one. However, some people are at much greater risk of serious illness than others. If you already have symptomatic arterial disease, or a condition that is a risk factor for arterial disease (sugar diabetes, hyperlipidaemia, hypertension) then smoking is very, very bad for you. Patients with respiratory disease are also at high risk (e.g. asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema). The longer you smoke for and the more you smoke the greater the cumulative damage. Occasionally you will hear of very old people who have smoked their whole lives: these are rare exceptions. Most people who smoke for a long period of time will die younger and from a potentially very unpleasant smoking related disease than someone who doesn’t! I3. If I stop smoking will the risk go away? The good news is that, provided you don’t already have a serious smoking related disease such as lung cancer, if you stop smoking your risk gradually returns to that of a non-smoker, but this takes about f
