In addition to carcinogens in the cigarette smoke, there's a lot of inflammatory agents," Glantz said. Smoking causes these diseases partly "by triggering inflammatory processes and increasing the general inflammatory environment."
Looking over the past 50 years of the war on smoking, the report authors warned that the disease risks from smoking by women have risen sharply and are now equal to those of men for lung cancer, and pulmonary and heart diseases.
Since the landmark 1964 report, nearly 21 million people have died prematurely because of smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, according to the report.
Heart and metabolic diseases attributed to smoking accounted for 40 percent of tobacco-related deaths, the report revealed.
"This is very important. When people think about smoking they usually just think cancer. Most people don't really appreciate how big the risks of heart diseases are," Glantz said.
The anti-smoking movement has had achievements too, the report authors noted. Today fewer than 20 percent of Americans smoke, down from 42 percent in 1964. Tobacco advertising has been banned from TV and 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws prohibiting smoking in all indoor public areas.