US Surgeon General "More diseases caused by smoking"

Smoking is more hazardous to your health than previously thought, says the United States Surgeon General. Surgeon General Richard Carmona says smoking cigarettes affects every cell in the body.

And, doctors now have plenty of evidence to show that it can cause disease, not just cancer, throughout the body.

Carmona also warns that low tar or low nicotine cigarettes aren't any more safe, reports abclocal.go.com

According to washingtonpost.com yet 45 million Americans still smoke, and the rate at which they are quitting has slowed significantly in recent years. Forty years after the first groundbreaking surgeon general's report on smoking, which said that cigarettes caused lung cancer and chronic bronchitis, Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona yesterday gave his assessment of the state of scientific knowledge about cigarette smoking. His conclusions were stark. "We've known for decades that smoking is bad for your health, but this report shows that it's even worse," he said. "The toxins from cigarette smoke go to everywhere the blood flows." The report, which cites 1,600 scientific studies into the effects of tobacco, described findings that associate cigarette smoking with colorectal, liver and prostate cancer, as well as erectile dysfunction. But it said more study is needed to determine if there is the direct cause-and-effect relationship found with other cancers and leukemia. Carmona said that research has shown that low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes do little or nothing to minimize the harm of tobacco.

"There is no safe cigarette, whether it is called "light," "ultra-light" or any other name," Carmona said. "The science is clear: The only way to avoid the health hazards of smoking is to quit completely or to never start smoking."