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Smoking Permanently Damages Your DNA, Study Finds (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: Smoking scars DNA in clear patterns, researchers reported Tuesday. Most of the damage fades over time, they found -- but not all of it. Their study of 16,000 people found that while most of the disease-causing genetic footprints left by smoking fade after five years if people quit, some appear to stay there forever. The marks are made in a process called methylation, which is an alteration of DNA that can inactivate a gene or change how it functions -- often causing cancer and other diseases. The team examined blood samples given by 16,000 people taking part in various studies going back to 1971. In all the studies, people have given blood samples and filled out questionnaires about smoking, diet, lifestyle and their health histories. They found smokers had a pattern of methylation changes affecting more than 7,000 genes, or one-third of known human genes. Many of the genes had known links to heart disease and cancers known to be caused by smoking. Among quitters, most of these changes reverted to the patterns seen in people who never smoked after about five years, the team reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics. But smoking-related changes in 19 genes, including the TIAM2 gene linked to lymphoma, lasted 30 years, the team found.
Would the same be true of people who were exposed to coal smoke for long periods?
What is it about "tobacco" smoke that causes this change in DNA, but maybe not caused by marijuana smoke? Or smog? Or eating sugar? Or getting vaccines?
Could it be caused by the additives? The pesticides? The rolling paper? Is it the carbon monoxide? The nicotine? Or does the tobacco plant simply contain the perfect storm of noxious compounds?
Ok, so what? Another article that says "smoking is bad." Not constructive-- it's just another excuse for people to dogpile onto the boogey man that is tobacco without actually finding the facts, curing addiction, or improving smoking products.
People do not smoke because they think it's smart and healthy. Some people do it because it's social. Others do it because they've been affected by clever marketing as youngsters and have gone years without realizing their Marlboro Man self-image is actually just nicotine addiction. One thing is for sure: being a smug asshole and being rude to people who smoke for one reason or another does not deter them at all-- it reinforces the desire to smoke because the cigarette makes them feel better than anti-smokers' negativity. A cigarette merely offends the smoker's physiology, while smug assholes offend the smoker's very soul.