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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
How much smoking is safe? The answer is in a Surgeon General's report - just inhaling one puff from one cigarette raises the risk of sickness and death.
The report looked at what in smoking causes death. There are lots of causes, including cancer, heart disease, stroke and emphysema. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has an example that reaches right into your cells:
``When inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke, the chemicals damage your DNA, which can lead to cancer.'' (6 seconds)
Dr. Benjamin says tobacco also weakens your ability to fight cancer.
And she says tobacco's damage is immediate. The chemicals reach into your lungs as soon as you inhale, and then get carried by your blood vessels to every organ in your body. And the blood vessels get damaged, too.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.