By now it should be no secret that smoking cigarettes is almost guaranteed to wreak havoc on your health. There are too many scientific studies and graphic anti-smoking ads shedding light on the gruesome cancers and diseases associated with smoking for it to come as a surprise. Yet, more than 20 percent of men and more than 15 percent of women in the United States still light up. However, there is still an underexposure of many smoking-related diseases linked to the dangerous habit. While the public is well aware that smoking is a risk factor for lung and throat cancer, they aren’t as aware of its ability to cause cancer elsewhere in the body.

“Cigarette smoke contains many toxins,” Dr. Luz Claudio, professor of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, explained to Medical Daily. “These toxins don't only enter the lungs, but are also distributed throughout the body in the bloodstream. Toxins from cigarette smoke can reach any organ in the body.”

Cigarettes contain more than 600 dangerous ingredients on top of the many cancer-causing chemicals produced by cigarette smoke, including arsenic, an inorganic substance found in rat poison. Arsenic has been included on the FDA’s Established List of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Constituents in Tobacco Products and Tobacco Smoke because it’s a toxic substance and carcinogen that can have an adverse effect of cardiovascular, reproductive and developmental health.

With all of these chemicals packed in one cigarette stick, it should come as no surprise that tobacco use is the leading cause of cancer and cancer-related deaths in the U.S. Luckily, many of these deaths are preventable. However, if you want to significantly reduce your risk of developing any of these cancers, your best bet is to throw away the cigarettes today.

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Here are 16 types of cancer you are at risk of developing if you keep smoking. Pixabay