Why You should not Smoke

I find it ironic that I don't smoke and like to smoke having come from a family of smokers. My mother smoked, but quit many years ago when I was a child. My father was a heavy smoker and smoked well into my adult years. He only stopped upon progression of his cancer. My sister still smokes to this day, but is in process of quitting. Good for her.

  

For all the reasons you should not smoke, this piece of information should make your decision much easier and clear.

Cigarettes damage the body within minutes of taking a puff, new research suggests. In a small study, scientists tracked the level of a chemical associated with cancer—one polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)—in 12 smokers and found it began damaging their DNA within 15 to 30 minutes of finishing a cigarette, according to a report published in the American Chemical Society's journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. "Almost everybody knows that smoking can cause lung cancer," Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at the advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health, told BBC News. "The chilling thing about this research is that it shows just how early the very first stages of the process begin—not in 30 years, but within 30 minutes of a single cigarette. But it is never too late to quit."