MARQUETTE -- It doesn't take a pack a day to increase your chances of cancer, heart disease, or other illnesses associated with smoking. In fact, it may not even take one cigarette.
According to a new report by the Surgeon General, even a single drag on a cigarette could be enough to damage your cells or your DNA. That damage can then lead to the onset of potentially fatal diseases.
Exposure to secondhand smoke is also enough to do significant damage.
The report also found that so-called 'light' cigarettes can do as much harm to your body as standard ones.
"There is no safe level of exposure...the point is not that you die immediately from this or that you develop a disease immediately from this; the point is that it is causing some damage at a cellular level and that we cannot detect it," said Marquette County Health Department Medical Director Dr. Kevin Piggott.
Dr. Piggott emphasizes there's no safe level of tobacco or tobacco smoke exposure.
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