Smoking Cigarettes Are they worth it to you?

Tobacco use leads to disease and disability. Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, and lung diseases (including emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction). For every person who dies from a smoking- related disease, 20 more people suffer with at least one serious illness from smoking.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death. Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by In the United States, tobacco use is responsible for about one in five deaths annually (i.e., about 443,000 deaths per year, and an estimated 49,000 of these tobacco-related deaths are the result of secondhand smoke exposure. On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.

Tobacco use costs the United States billions of dollars each year. Cigarette smoking costs more than $193 billion (i.e., $97 billion in lost productivity plus $96 billion in health care expenditures). Secondhand smoke costs more than $10 billion (i.e., health care expenditures, morbidity, and mortality).

Percentage of U.S. adults who were current smokers in % of all adults (46.6 million people) 23.2% of American Indian/Alaska Native adults 22.1% of white adults 21.3% of African American adults 14.5% of Hispanic adults 12.0% of Asian American adults (excluding Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders)

Thousands of young people and adults begin smoking every day. Each day in the United States, approximately 3,900 young people between 12 and 17 years of age smoke their first cigarette An estimated 1,000 youth become daily cigarette smokers.

Many adult smokers want or try to quit smoking. Approximately 70% of smokers want to quit completely. Approximately 45% of smokers try to quit each year.

Smoking and smokeless tobacco use are almost always initiated and established during adolescence. Most people who begin smoking during adolescence are addicted by the age of 20. Additionally, adolescent smokeless tobacco users are more likely than nonusers to become adult cigarette smokers. Youth cigarette use declined sharply during 1997–2003; however, rates have remained relatively stable over the past several years. Why? Youth smokeless tobacco use also declined in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but an increasing number of U.S. high school students have reported using smokeless tobacco products during the past few years.

Percentage of high school students who were current cigarette smokers in % of high school students 18.7% of female high school students 21.3% of male high school students Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Smoking and Increased Health Risks Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of— coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times stroke by 2 to 4 times men developing lung cancer by 23 times women developing lung cancer by 13 times dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times. Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

Smoking and Cancer Smoking causes the following cancers: Acute myeloid leukemia Bladder cancer Cancer of the cervix Cancer of the esophagus Kidney cancer Cancer of the larynx (voice box) Lung cancer Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth) Cancer of the pharynx (throat) Stomach cancer Cancer of the uterus Increased risk of breast cancer

Smoking and Other Health Effects Smoking is associated with the following adverse health effects: infertility, preterm delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Smoking is associated with the following adverse health effects: –Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked. –Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than women who never smoked.

The question is: Will you pick up that cigarette and put the death stick to your lips? Will you pick up that cigarette and put the death stick to your lips?