Even healthy-looking smokers have early cell damage which destroys necessary genetic programming
The study, published today in the journal Stem Cells, compared cells that line the airway from healthy nonsmokers with those from smokers with no detectable lung disease. The smokers’ cells showed early signs of impairment, similar to that found in lung cancer — providing evidence that smoking causes harm, even when there is no clinical evidence that anything is wrong. "The study doesn’t say these people have cancer, but that the cells are already starting to lose control and become disordered," says the study’s senior investigator, Dr. …