Smoking is obviously a bad habit. It reduces your life expectancy, ruins your teeth, causes bad breath and actually makes you weaker. Not to talk about the greater cancer risks and a potential of facing problems in bed. But can smoking be bad for you in terms of increasing the risk of catching SARS-CoV-2?

This question was presented to two UNSW scientists – Professor of Respiratory Medicine Christine Jenkins and Associate Professor Freddy Sitas, who is a specialist of public health and community medicine. Both scientists immediately confirmed that there are no studies done in this area. COVID-19 pandemic is a fairly new problem and the science behind it is still lacking. However, there are some factors that could contribute to higher risk for smokers to contract the COVID-19 disease.

Professor Jenkins noted that some behavioural features of smokers put them at a greater risk immediately. For example, they are always touching their face. They are also touching cigarettes they are putting in their face. And you cannot wear a mask while smoking.

We could also note that smoking for many is a social experience. This means that smokers tend to gather outside of their buildings and smoke togethers. If the appropriate 2 metre social distance is not maintained, they could be putting themselves at a greater risk of catching the virus.

The good news is that all of these behavioural problems could be fixes. Smokers should buy more cigarettes at once to avoid going to the store too often. They should also maintain social distance from other smokers, wash their hands often and avoid touching their face. However, they are still likely to be facing an increased risk of getting COVID-19 disease because of their habit.

Professor Sitas noted that smoking does some damage to the lungs and immune system. Sitas pointed out that potential damage to the lungs has been summarised by Cancer Council Victoria. “the harm that smoking causes to the lungs includes: mild immune impairment and significant impaired function of cilia in the lung. Cilia have the vital role of clearing foreign bodies in the lungs; i.e., viruses and bacteria”. This is why some smokers struggle with flu and pneumonia so much more than people without this habit. And because lungs are impacted by smoking and cannot cleanse themselves as effectively, it is likely that smokers are facing an elevated risk of contracting COVID-19.

There is also something we do know exactly – people with damaged lungs impacted more severely by the harsher symptoms of COVID-19. Therefore, this global pandemic is probably a good time to quit smoking. You can’t go anywhere anyway.

Source: UNSW