Smoking affects your lungs.
No question.
Full stop.
It can also affect your throat, heart and blood pressure.
Smoking can actually be deadly over time.
It often is.
In young people there is a tendency to gloss over the possible effects.
But they are still there and will catch up with them over time.
Growth of lungs and other vital organs is inhibited in smokers starting at an early age.
The mixture of about 4,000 chemicals which are in a cigarette does untold damage over time.
Young people who ignore the habit are more liable to keep the smoking habit until older age.
That makes the future even less rosy for them.
The heart is affected by smoking - it is compelled to do more work than it is used to.
It gets weakened and eventually will fail - often early in life.
The result is a heart attack or, if you are lucky, angina.
Ill health is accompanied by discomfort, reliance on the health services and regular medication and numerous unpleasant investigations.
The degradation of oxygen in the body is possibly the root cause of many ill effects.
The blood vessels constrict and makes blood flow more difficult.
Tar from cigarettes builds up in the lungs and causes cancer and breathing difficulties.
The result, inevitably, is death.
Lifespan is shortened in the vast majority of cases.
Quality of life is reduced.
Many smokers live poor and uncomfortable existences as they age.
All due to smoking.
Even passive smokers are prone to experience major health defects because of the action of others.