There is no safe level of smoking. Every cigarette exposes your body to harmful chemicals. Someone who smokes, even one cigarette a week, have an increased health risk for a number of health problems compared with people who don’t smoke at all.
With the first puff of a cigarette blood pressure rises and heart rate increases. Blood flow in capillaries decreases and levels of carbon monoxide increase, all of which means that less oxygen will reach the organs in which it is needed. One cigarette will also affect the body’s ability to defend and clear particles by incapacitating the cilia which sweep the bronchial pathways.
People who smoke fewer cigarettes do have a lower risk of developing one of the 14 cancers caused by cigarettes, but their risk is higher than someone who is tobacco free. Compounds in cigarettes cause DNA mutation at the cellular level, which is a mechanism by which tobacco causes cancer. DNA damage is cumulative, so more cigarettes will increase the likelihood that cancer related mutations will happen, but the accumulation proceeds one cigarette at a time.
The impact of a single cigarette has an even greater effect in the cardiovascular system. Light and intermittent smokers have nearly the same risk of heart attack as those who smoke much more, especially for the first few hours after having a cigarette.
Maybe most importantly, as many in the EX community know, smoking one can be a slippery slope. As you often hear in Alcoholics Anonymous, ‘one is too many, and a thousand is not enough’. So, while the idea of being a social smoker may be appealing, is it worth the risk?
Michael V. Burke, Ed.D
Program Director and NDC Counselor/ CTTS
