• Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 identified chemical compounds, 43 of which are known to cause cancer in humans or animals.
• The terms “light” and “mild” are grossly misleading, since they imply a healthier cigarette or tobacco product and smokers regulate their nicotine intake by the intensity, volume or frequency of puffing to get their desired nicotine dose.
• Smokers who don’t quit in their early thirties have a 50% chance of dying of a tobacco-related disease. 

• There are forms of smokeless tobacco – Tobacco is taken in various ways – Tobacco with betel leaves, Chewing tobacco (khaini), Guthkha, Tobacco snuff.
• Smokeless tobacco is not safer than cigarettes-it contains many dangerous chemicals, including cancer-producing chemicals.
• Long-term smokeless tobacco users begin to develop oral tissue abnormalities within a year.
• Smokeless tobacco can result in non-cancerous and pre-cancerous oral lesions, gum recession, gingivitis, tooth caries, abrasion and stains.

• Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) [passive smoke] is a Group A carcinogen and it causes 30 times as many lung cancer deaths as all air pollutants combined.
• Exposure to passive smoke increases the risk of lower respiratory tract infections, asthma, ear infections and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in children

• Nicotine produces cancer. Cancers caused by Tobacco
  • Oral cancers
  • Oropharyngeal cancers
  • Laryngeal cancers
  • Hypopharyngeal cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Esophageal cancer
  • Urinary bladder cancer 
• Nicotine causes increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow from the heart; narrowing of blood vessels; decreased oxygen in the blood; increased fatty acids, glucose, cortisol and other hormones in the blood; increased risk of hardened arteries and blood clotting. 

• Pregnant women who smoke are at much greater risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, pre-term delivery, low-birth weight, and infant mortality.
• If the pregnant woman stops smoking before pregnancy or during the first 3-4 months of pregnancy, the risks of low birth weight are reduced.
• Even though the use of the nicotine replacement patch during pregnancy is controversial, many experts agree that the benefits of quitting outweigh the potential toxicity of nicotine found in NRT treatments. 

Smoking 
Chewing Tobacco