It has long been known that cigarettes harm health, but according to new research shows that even cause serious genetic mutations.
According to Lyudmil Alexandrov from Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US, who was born in Bulgaria smoking of 20 cigarettes a day causes serious genetic damage in organs, as in every cell of the lungs are 150 annually forward Reuters.
The study, done by a group of scientists from the British Institute “Sanger,” was published in the journal. “Science.”
And the results of this research show a direct link between cigarettes smoked in my life and the number of mutations in the DNA of cancerous tumors.
The changes are permanent and remain even a person to quit. Mutations are most in lung cancer, but the tumors in other parts of the body – the bladder, liver, throat, have also been modified with the DNA resulting from the tobacco. This explains why smoking causes many other types of cancer, except lung, notes the expert.
According to him thus far it has been difficult to explain exactly how smoking increases the risk of cancer in organs that are not in direct contact with the smoke.
Each mutation is a potential starting point for a “cascade of genetic damage“, which can lead to cancer. The results show that the smoking of a cigarette pack per day produced an average of 97 mutations per year in each cell of the larynx, 39 mutations – pharynx, 23 – in the mouth, 18 – bladder, six – of the liver.