The first danger of cigarettes is nicotine addiction. Many harmful elements are contained within a single cigarette stick, and the most damaging of these is nicotine. When an individual smokes frequently, his body develops a dependency to the said substance, which becomes harder to break over time. This primary effect of smoking in turn paves the way for other dangers to occur.

Once a person becomes addicted to cigarettes, he will be at risk of acquiring numerous short- and long-term health problems. Two of the most common diseases acquired from smoking are emphysema and bronchitis. Emphysema is an incurable disease which occurs when the air sacks in the lungs are damaged severely. As a result, an individual who has this disease becomes easily exhausted and has difficulty in breathing. When the case gets worse, he will be incapable of breathing and would have to do so through tubes connected to oxygen tanks. Moving on, bronchitis is a lung disease wherein the bronchial tubes swell or become irritated. Excessive mucus forms within the tubes and blocks them, making the person cough a lot.

Aside from the said ailments, other equally foreboding dangers of cigarettes are various types of cancer. Cigarettes contain more than fifty carcinogenic materials, all of which increase the risk of the development of lung cancer, as well as cancers of the bladder, kidney, throat, and mouth.