MOUTH, LIVER, BLADDER, LARYNX & PHARYNX ALSO AFFECTED
Although the number of mutations within cancer cells varies between people, the new study identifies additional mutations in other body organs that smoking causes. Smoking a pack a day causes an estimated average of 97 mutations in each cell of the larynx (in the throat); 39 in the pharynx (in the throat); 23 in the mouth; 18 in the bladder; and six mutations in every cell of the liver each year. The research shows at least five distinct ways smoking damages DNA, the most common of which is found in most types of cancer: accelerating the speed of a cellular clock that appears to mutate DNA prematurely.